Grade: 2.5/5
On Oct. 24, Demi Lovato released her ninth studio album, It’s Not That Deep. Lovato has been pivoting away from pop music for years, with this 2025 album serving as the plier that removes the nail from the genre’s coffin. In 2022, she posted a photo dressed in black, middle fingers raised, captioned “a funeral for my pop music.” That record, Holy Fvck, funneled raw emotion through hard rock and pop-punk, trading the Hollywood glamour of her earlier hits for pure grit. But by summer 2025, the 33-year-old was already teasing a comeback, posting a TikTok from the studio captioned, “My pop music coming back to life after we held a funeral for it.” And just like that, “Popvato” was officially born again, producing an album that lives up to its name. Sometimes, pop music just isn’t that deep.
You must give her credit — with all the memes she’s been made into, it’s impressive that she has the courage to name her album It’s Not That Deep. How does one come back from Poot Lovato? Maybe by embracing the joke — after all, according to a viral interview, she can dish it out and take it, her favorite dish being a mug, of course. Although we may need to confirm she knows all the meanings of the word “dish.” Nevertheless, it is clear with this album, Lovato simply set out to “have fun,” and despite however audiences may feel about the actual music value of this album, you’ve got to Taylor-Swift it, and just say, “Man, we love this era for her.”
Still, from a critical lens, it’s hard to ignore how not deep this album truly is. Rolling Stone’s sentiment that “Lovato is back to the sound where she shines brightest” is not only unfair to the work she’s done in the recent years, but it’s also pointing at a more deeply ingrained truth: that Demi Lovato’s songs were better when she was younger and shinier. In working with a rather new-to-the-scene producer, Zhone, Lovato was attempting to tap back into “her electronic-pop roots” and ultimately what worked for her when she too was “new to the scene.”
The lyrics, however, pulse with the urgency of a middle-aged man’s forehead vein. “Frequency” carries a club-like energy as she repeats “fuck up the vibe” over a pounding beat. “Kiss” mirrors the robotic tone Zhone once crafted for Kesha’s “Boy Crazy,” while singles such as “Fast” and “Here All Night” dive headfirst into EDM. Yet the production often overpowers the message. “Sorry to Myself,” for example, sounds as though it’s stuck in 2015.
Still, beneath the noise lies a glimmer of something real. Although the closer, “Ghost,” is not a fan favorite, it offers the audience a flicker of authenticity that is otherwise lacking. In this emotional ballad, Lovato finally opens up to her audience as she sings about a love she hopes will follow her into the afterlife: “I hope you flicker the lights / And send a chill down my spine so cold / Wanna be haunted for life by your ghost.” While it may not lend itself to grinding on someone at a club, it provides a welcome glimpse of emotional honesty. Coming from an artist that has shared her sexuality, overcome drug overdoses, endured numerous health scares, a new marriage and more — all while under a microscope — I honestly wish there were more songs like “Ghost.”
It’s Not That Deep delighted me at certain points and made me turn my headphones down at a few, but did any song besides “Ghost,” truly stick with me? No — which is a bummer, considering Demi Lovato’s wide-spanning celebrity track record does have important lessons that could make us all feel deeply. Lovato has always known how to transform pain into poetry, but the albumremains rather hollow.
Though maybe that’s the point. After everything she’s survived, maybe Lovato has earned the right to not be deep for once. But for an artist with a voice as powerful as hers, I can’t help but wish she’d dug just a little deeper.