ALEX HOBEN
editor-in-chief
alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu

Demi Lovato’s “FVCK YOU” album is a raw, painful collection lifting the curtain on the conflict the singer went through being a child star, and the repercussions after breaking free.

The tracks in this collection are like listening to someone’s journey through their depression and drug-addled downward spiral, then going with them through recovery and introspection period, all smacked onto a typical early 2000s rock format.

The composition and the instrumentals in these songs brought me back to rocking out to Linkin Park, Evanescence and Papa Roach. Lovato’s power through their voice is impressive and the emotion can be clearly heard in the way they at times scream out the lyrics they want to get across. The heartbreak they felt was not just from the emotional release of singing the song – but the inspiration for the lyrics.

As good as Lovato’s voice is, the lyrics at times do get confusing. Some lines repeat multiple times even though it breaks the flow of the song, now this might be intentional but on the initial listen through it just sounded disjointed and out of place.

The stand-out song overall isn’t actually the namesake of the album but instead “29”, this song is a wild ride from the very first acoustic lyric to the disjointed sudden end and it is fantastic. 

The song addresses the relationship Lovato had with Wilmer Valderrama when they were 17 and he was 29, and the revelations they had of how messed up that was of him and how they know better now. The lyrics are pointed and accusatory and the way Lovato slowly loses their composure in their voice the longer the song goes is amazing. If there is only one song to listen to on this album, it’s this one.

It feels like each song is its own journey, and we just see the barest snapshot of what Lovato went through when writing it.

Lovato doesn’t sugarcoat anything, they are upfront with everything they went through clearly stating it in the lyrics. It’s refreshing to see an album not try to beautify or make someone’s suffering artistic. This album is pure catharsis for them and the listener is getting a glimpse of what all that pressure and those expectations of being a child star can do to someone.

The nostalgic feel from the music implies that Lovato wanted to make this kind of music when they were younger but couldn’t because of all the boxes they had to fit in as a Disney child star. The freedom that can be felt screaming the lyrics to “FREAK” down the highway or crying because of the message in “HAPPY ENDING” are all the things Lovato couldn’t do when they were made to conform into ideals that are explained in “EAT ME”.

This album is a testament to the horrors of the image-based entertainment industry and what trying to rebel against yourself can do to your psyche, but there’s still somehow hope, the last track “4 EVER 4 ME”, is a love song looking forward to the future with the one they’ve chosen to be with and that is exactly the sort of soother needed after such a wild ride of emotions serating the soul.