DEMI | Demi Lovato

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Demi Lovato's fans really got a treat this month. Lovato's album, DEMI, was slated for release tomorrow, but last week, Lovato tweeted out links to YouTube videos for each song on the album. I had been slightly looking forward to the album, so when Lovato leaked the album, I took the time to listen to the entire album.

Now, before I get into the actually music, may I please ask what is going on with the cover of this album? It's hideous. Lovatics across the web have been saying that album is so edgy and creative... Why? The girl looks like she just got done bathing in silver paint. DEMI's cover isn't special; it's just awkward. The single cover for "Heart Attack" was actually really nice; why wasn't a picture from that photo shoot used instead?

When the lead single of DEMI was released a few months ago, I instantly fell in love with it (as much as I hated to admit it). "Heart Attack" showed a lot of growth from Lovato, especially vocally, which is quite evident in each repetition of the song's chorus. I don't want to go too in-depth, because I already reviewed the song separately. You can read my review of the song here.

On the other hand, Lovato takes a break on "Neon Lights" and allows auto-tune to do some work for her. Even though there is evident use of auto-tune, I liked "Neon Lights." It's a catchy song, but instrumental gave me this giant vibe of Rihanna's "We Found Love." Obviously, "Neon Lights" is a hell of a lot better because Rihanna's song was basic and had about three lines of lyrics, but they do sound a bit similar. But again, I do like the song. It's an average, run-of-the-mill pop song of this decade.

The only collaboration to appear on DEMI is with British pop star Cher Lloyd, who is most-well known for her song "Want U Back" in the United States. However, Lloyd sings a minuscule twenty second verse in one of the weakest songs from the album, "Really Don't Care," and I feel like she was only included for that small amount of time just so Lovato's label could market the album by saying that there was a special collaboration between the two. I also noticed that the first twenty seconds or so of the song are quite reminiscent of Icona Pop's "I Love It," or at least a rather watered-down version of "I Love It."

Actually, a lot of the songs on DEMI are somewhat similar to other pop hits. I've already compared "Neon Lights" to "We Found Love" and "Really Don't Care" to "I Love It," but this next one should come as no surprise: Lovato's "Made in the U.S.A." sounds like a re-write of "Party in the U.S.A.," the song that gained Miley Cyrus a lot of radio airplay back in 2009. Two of the album's ballads also sounds familiar: "Nightingale," draws some influence from Lovato's own "Skyscraper," while the vocal lines of the verses in "Two Pieces" are close to those in Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years."

To make a long story short, DEMI is going to make Lovatics happy; they've already been littering the comments section of Lovato's YouTube videos with things like "if u dislike the songs on demi U DONT HAVE A HEART. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL," and "demi is the best album of all time omg she deserves an oscar or grammy or vma or golden globe or something." (Yes, I have seen people on YouTube saying that Demi Lovato deserves an Oscar and a Golden Globe for DEMI. Logical? Not at all.) However, casual listeners like myself that may have been drawn towards the album by "Heart Attack" will more than likely be disappointed. There are a few highlights in the album, but the majority of the songs just fall short of my expectations.