The album was promoted by two singles prior to its release: The lead single "Lose You to Love Me" was released on October 23, 2019. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became Gomez's first number-one single in the United States. "Look at Her Now" was released a day after the lead single, peaking at number 27 on the chart. Coinciding with the album release, the title track was made the third single, peaking at number 30 on the Hot 100. Rare was marketed as "#SG2", signifying Gomez's second album with Interscope. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its production and cohesiveness, with many calling it Gomez's best album to date. Rare topped the charts in several countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, and Scotland.
Debuting atop the Billboard 200, Rare gave Gomez her third consecutive number-one album in the US. The Target-exclusive edition of Rare additionally includes five of Gomez's standalone singles released in 2017–18: "Bad Liar", "Fetish" featuring Gucci Mane, "It Ain't Me" with Kygo, "Back to You", and "Wolves" with Marshmello. The vinyl edition of Rare adds "Feel Me" as a bonus track. The deluxe edition with three new tracks, including the fourth single "Boyfriend", was released on April 9, 2020.[3]
Speaking in a November 2019 interview for Apple Music on the subject of her upcoming studio album Rare, Gomez admitted that the unreleased tracks were where she currently was. She also said that the songs on the tracklist went well with each other, after putting them in order.[4]
Gomez appeared on the radio program On Air with Ryan Seacrest and stated that she had "a million ideas and it's just going to be cooler and it's going to be stronger and it's going to be better."[5] She stated on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that the album would have a "sense of strong pop", and that she experimented with electric guitar. She also said that it took her "four years now to even feel at a good place with this album".[6]
Rare is primarily a pop[8] and dance-pop record[9] with a dark tone,[10] deriving elements from various musical styles, such as R&B,[11][12]electro,[12]funk-pop,[13]reggaeton,[11]alternative pop[14] and electronic music.[13] The main themes are of "love, loss and dating".[12] Gomez herself stated that the album is "honest, empowering and uplifting",[15] while its main messages are "self-love, acceptance and empowerment".[16] She also added that the songs on Rare are "the most honest music I've ever made".[17]
Rare contains two collaborations: The ninth track "Crowded Room" features singer 6lack (left) in the song's bridge, while the thirteenth track "A Sweeter Place" features rapper Kid Cudi (right) in the second verse and outro.
The standard edition of Rare contains 13 tracks. The opener and title track is a "quiet but impactful self-love anthem"[18] with lyrics discussing "the wavering interests of a lover"[19] and the singer realizing "her love interest isn't valuing her in the way she deserves".[20] Its sound has been referred to as "backing vocals and instrumentals muffled as if the whole thing has been dunked underwater".[21] The following track, "Dance Again", is a blend of multiple genres, including funk,[22][23] dance,[8] electro,[24] and electropop.[14][25] It encompasses an "infectious" and "mellifluous" melody, "Cure-like" bass, "fuzzy" synths and a "walloping disco bassline".[26][8][27] It has been described as "lite-Daft Punk"[23] and "low-key yet deeply infectious".[8] Co-written with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, "Look at Her Now" is an upbeat dance-pop[28] and electropop[14] track which explores "being better off without the bad ones" and getting over the end of a relationship. The fourth song, "Lose You to Love Me", is the only balladonRare.[29] Its "bare-bones" production[30] incorporates "plucked" violins, "booming" bass, "tearjerker" piano, an orchestra, and "multi-tracked Gomez voices cascading against each other".[28][8] The song is about self-love and finding out one's true self while losing a lover in the process. Critics speculated that it may reference about Gomez's relationship with Justin Bieber.[31] The Latin-infused "Ring", which deals with "toying with noncommittal lovers",[28] drew comparisons to the works of Camila Cabello (namely her 2017 hit single "Havana"), Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know", as well as Santana's "Smooth".[28][31][32][25] Produced by the Monsters & Strangerz with Jon Bellion, "Vulnerable" is a "warm" disco[23][31] and electropop[14] record with a "moody synth groove"[28] and elements of italo disco and tropical house.[33]
Influences of Latin music are also present on the upbeat and "dancefloor-ready"[27] "Let Me Get Me".[31] The first of Rare's two collaborations, "Crowded Room", is an R&B song which features singer 6lack. Tracks 10, 11, and 12 all have a funk sound.[8] "Kinda Crazy" is a "tongue-in-cheek tune" and "sinuous kiss-off"[14][23] driven by a "clean bluesy guitar lick and accompanying horns".[26] "Cut You Off" is a "slinky" funk-inflected downtempo pop song[34] and a slow jam about "saying goodbye to a relationship that's dragging you down".[35] It has been compared to the works of Taylor Swift.[8]Rare concludes with "A Sweeter Place": A collaboration with rapper Kid Cudi, the song "documents the life lessons [Gomez] has learned and expresses hope that brighter days lie ahead".[14] The vinyl and digital bonus track editions of Rare feature the song "Feel Me",[36] which was previously featured on the setlist of Gomez's 2016 Revival Tour.[37][38] Gomez released the song on digital platforms on February 21, 2020, the day of the vinyl release.[39]
The album and its title were first announced on Gomez's Instagram page,[40] where she revealed the cover art and included a snippet of the title track.
The standard edition of the studio album was promoted and preceded by the release of "Lose You to Love Me" released October 23, 2019, and "Look at Her Now" on October 24, 2019.[41][42] On November 24, 2019, Gomez performed "Lose You to Love Me" and "Look at Her Now" at the 2019 American Music Awards to promote the album. The title track was released as the second single the same day the album came out. Gomez also appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and The Kelly Clarkson Show to promote the album.[6]
Rare received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 76 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[47]
Jem Aswad of Variety labeled Rare "one of the best pop albums to be released in recent memory" and described it as "sophisticated, precisely written and expertly produced music".[8] While calling it "shockingly, and beautifully, upbeat", Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone opined that the album is "an act of divine ruthlessness, full of dance-y, mid-tempo clarity".[29] Writing for NME, Rhian Daly called the album "a beautifully confident return from one of pop's most underrated stars, and a quietly defiant wrestling back of the narrative surrounding her",[54] while Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly praised the album's "lightness" despite its "heavy messaging".[51]
Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times named Rare as Gomez's "most meaningful solo disc" and opined that it embraces "an infectious spirit of adventure".[31] Similarly, Vulture's Craig Jenkins wrote that the album is "almost inarguably Selena Gomez's best album".[57] In a mixed review, Pitchfork's Quinn Moreland stated that the album was her "most cohesive record to date" but that "[Gomez's] introspection can only go so deep when it's paired with sleek, easy songwriting that lets her slip by".[25] In concurrence, Alexandra Pollard of The Independent gave the album three stars out of five, deeming it "an accomplished, coherent record, with moments of ecstasy and others of pathos" but concluding that it "never quite gets out from beneath the shadow of half a decade of behemothic bangers".[52]
Idolator listed Rare among the 20 best pop albums of 2020, for being an "extraordinarily accomplished pop album that tackles serious issues like self worth and mental health" while complimenting "Lose You to Love Me" as a "Grammy-worthy ballad"; the tracks "Vulnerable", "Ring", "People You Know" and "A Sweeter Place" were highlighted as the "delights" from the album.[58]
Rare was featured on several year-end list of best albums. It was listed at number 30 on Uproxx's "The Best Albums of 2020" list, with the editors commenting "Coming into her adulthood necessarily meant facing down those two demons, and she does it with idiosyncratic lyrics, outstanding vocal performances, and earworm hooks."[59]Rolling Stone ranked it at number 24 on "The Best Albums of 2020" list, with Julia Childing stating that "it’s cathartic to hear Gomez dump out the bad years like they’re just burned toast". The publication also listed "Cut You Off", a song from the album as the 19th best song of 2020. Billboard listed the title track as one of the best pop songs of 2020.[60]
In the United States, Rare debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 112,000 album-equivalent units (including 53,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week.[73] This became Gomez's third US number-one debut and the first album released in the 2020s to top the chart.[73] The album also accumulated a total of 79.3 million on-demand streams for album’s tracks that week.[73] In its second week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, earning an additional 38,000 units.[74] As of December 2020, the album has earned 703,000 album-equivalent units in the US, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.[75] In July 2021, Rare had sold 123,000 pure copies in the US.[76]
In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart earning 17,661 album-equivalent units in its first week.[77] It became her highest-charting album in the country.[77] In Australia, the album debuted at number one on the ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart, becoming Gomez's first number-one debut in the country. It also became her first number-one album in Argentina, Belgium (Flanders), Lithuania, Portugal and Scotland.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 03.Týden 2020 on the field besides the words『CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100』to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
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