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As the first song that Selena Gomez has released after being fresh from her marriage to Benny Blanco—with whom she recently made the joint album, I Said I Love You First—“In the Dark” does little to assuage the notion that monogamy of this variety doesn’t ultimately lead to codependency. Intended as a single in support of the second season of Nobody Wants This (which isn’t the best title for a show that one is contributing a song to), Gomez makes such “tailored” (read: rather generic) declarations as, “And I’ll be there when you lose yourself/To remind you of who you are/And I’ll be there like nobody else/You’re so beautiful in the dark.”
While that latter assurance might be intended as a double meaning in that Gomez is trying to say that, even in her lover’s darkest hour, she still finds them beautiful, endearing, etc., the “compliment” is somewhat backhanded in that it kind of prompts the response, “But not in the light?” Because being told you look beautiful in the dark isn’t very “romantic,” since anyone can look “decent enough” in a dimly-lit room (ergo the sleazy expression, “All cats look the same in the dark” or “All cats are gray in the dark”—though it’s the former version of the “platitude” that Samantha Jones quotes to Carrie Bradshaw in “The Man, the Myth, the Viagra” while defending her contemplation of sleeping with a much older man).
To this point, Lady Gaga’s 2009 hit, “Dance in the Dark,” is partly about women who feel too self-conscious to have sex with the lights on, with the word “dance” being wielded as a metaphor for, well, the dance of two bodies in a bed (evidenced by such lyrics as, “Baby loves to dance in the dark/‘Cause when he’s lookin’, she falls apart). If Gomez is turning that concept on its ear by painting the male in the relationship as the insecure one, then one supposes that’s the only “avant-garde” thing about it. Because the accompanying video certainly has little in the way of “groundbreaking” content to offer either. Directed by Luke Orlando (who has also worked on Charli XCX’s “New Shapes” and “Baby” videos and, more recently, Reneé Rapp’s “Mad”), it’s basically a showcase for Gomez to parade some “The Matrix-chic” fashions while occasionally standing against a black backdrop as dry ice works its magic to create a smoky effect around her and the floor. Not exactly something that could be described as “high in production value” and, shit, they could have at least interwoven some clips from the show in the spirit of songs that are made specifically for a movie or TV series. Except that, in truth, “In the Dark” wasn’t made for Nobody Wants This.
In fact, some version of “In the Dark” has been percolating since 2018, when Gomez was working on the first iteration of what would become Rare (branded before that point as Seven Heavens). Though surely, in spite of the final version of the song taking years to emerge, it couldn’t have required too much time to come up with such lines as, “All my life’s lying where you are” and “Giving you love/Keep giving you love/Never giving you up.” And yes, that latter part channels some major Rick Astley energy—not to mention how it also exudes a creepy, overly-possessive aura. But, of course, that’s not what one is supposed to think when hearing it. It’s meant, instead, to sound endlessly and hopelessly romantic. The quality that’s been missing from most songs (and movies, for that matter) for a while now. And yet, when the attempt is made to infuse that characteristic into an “impassioned” single like this, the overall effect is that of disingenuousness. Because, let’s put it this way, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” this is not.
Nor is the statement, “I’ll be there when you lose yourself/To remind you of who you are” “comforting” or “sweet,” so much as ominous and cult-like. What’s more, it’s an interesting avowal to make, considering the only person (when “having a sense of self” is done right) that can really “remind you of who you are” is yourself. Not some outside presence—regardless of them being your “true love” or not. But, of course, that’s not a “romantic” message to convey in a danceable love song designed for Top 40 radio. And to be in a show designed for the Top 10 of Netflix. In other words, so much for the mantra, “I needed to lose you to love me.”
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Genna Rivieccio
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