SELENA GOMEZ & BENNY BLANCO: I Said I Love You First (Interscope)

Verdict: Disney pop princess grows up (THREE STARS)

At the beginning of last year, Selena Gomez seemed to have made a big career decision. The former Disney Channel starlet, who had been dividing her working life between singing and acting, announced that it was film that was now her priority. She even hinted at giving up music entirely, suggesting she had ‘one more album’ in her locker at most.

Given her success on the screen, this wasn’t exactly a surprise. Since 2021, the Texan has starred in – and executive produced – the acclaimed crime series Only Murders In The Building. Last year also saw her nominated for a host of awards, including a BAFTA and Golden Globe, for Emilia Pérez.

But saying goodbye to her pop career has proved tougher than she first thought, and her two-year relationship with fiancé Benny Blanco, an American record producer, has been the catalyst to get her back into the studio. Credited to Gomez and Blanco, new album I Said I Love You First is her first full-length release since 2020’s Rare, and it finds her fully re-energised by music.

The album is an autobiographical affair that chronicles the pair’s ‘love story’ – ‘before they met, falling in love and looking to what the future holds.’ It’s a concept with the whiff of a saccharine Hollywood vanity project, and there are times when the Cringe-O-Meter starts twitching, but the overall mood is surprisingly subtle. Ballads are to the fore, with just the occasional banger to break the sultry mood.

Credited to Gomez and Blanco, new album I Said I Love You First is her first full-length release since 2020’s Rare, and it finds her fully re-energised by music

The album is an autobiographical affair that chronicles the pair’s ‘love story’ – ‘before they met, falling in love and looking to what the future holds’

The break-up mood that fuels the opening songs relents as Selena’s new love blossoms

Blanco, 37, who has worked with Ed Sheeran, Rihanna and Katy Perry, leaves the singing to Selena, 32, and he tailors his arrangements to individual songs. Gomez, for her part, begins by bidding farewell to an un-named ex-lover (she’s previously dated Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas) on Younger And H๏τter Than Me.

The break-up mood that fuels the opening songs relents as Selena’s new love blossoms. Sunset Blvd delivers saucy innuendo with a knowing wink in much the same fashion as her pop peer (and fellow former Disney idol) Sabrina Carpenter. The suggestive Cowboy is one of several ballads that nod strongly – perhaps too strongly – in the direction of Lana Del Rey.

As for the more upbeat numbers, recent single Call Me When You Break Up, a duet with Gracie Abrams, frames Gomez as an agony aunt offering support to a friend in need, while Bluest Flame, with co-writer Charli XCX on backing vocals is an electronic dance piece in the vein of Charli’s Brat franchise. I Can’t Get Enough, meanwhile, made with Colombian singer J Balvin, is infectious, but oddly out of place, having first been released as a single six years ago.

She finishes, on Scared Of Loving You, with one last ballad. The song, written with Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas, hints that even a happy romance isn’t all hearts and flowers, adding a cautionary note to the fairytale. ‘When I was young, I would love too fast,’ she sings. ‘Hope I don’t repeat my past.’ Once a Disney pop princess, she’s now a far more grown-up proposition.