ReportWire

Tag: Selena Gomez Love On

  • Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” Mimics the Frothiness of Selena Gomez’s “Love On”

    Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” Mimics the Frothiness of Selena Gomez’s “Love On”

    [ad_1]

    While Sabrina Carpenter might not have written a song about cappuccino, “Espresso” has plenty of (sonic) froth to offer. And it’s of the variety that very much mimics Selena Gomez’s stylings for her own summer anthem, “Love On.” Although the latter was released in February, months before summer was a thought on anyone’s mind, Gomez seemed to be aware of the fact that seasons, at this juncture, are merely a state of mind (what with so much environmental/meteorological inconsistency at present). Carpenter, too, got a bit of a jump on the season by releasing “Espresso” in mid-April, just before her weekend performance at Coachella, where her new(ish) boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, was the recipient of many a lascivious glance. 

    To complement the froth of a song that touts, “Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know/That’s that me espresso/Move it up, down, left, right, oh/Switch it up like Nintendo” (lyrics that very much smack of Ariana Grande on “34+35” or “positions”—or even her gaming-oriented line, “Yet you played me like Atari” on “eternal sunshine”), Carpenter brings her listeners a sumptuous, beachy visual to go with it. As Carpenter herself said, “Since the day I heard the song, I saw a beach atmosphere—and more specifically this kind of old school [meets] modern environment.” She also added, “I also just wanted a pool car, to be frank.” Change the phrase to “girls just wanna have pool cars,” because Carpenter is sure to make this specific type of vehicle more appealing than when Lourdes Leon, Grimes, Amandla Stenberg and Kenya Kinski-Jones rode around in one for a Stella McCartney perfume ad. 

    Proving she’s hit the big time by getting Dave Meyers to direct, the video opens on people getting a tan, with part of their skin becoming redder than others to spell out “Sabrina Carpenter,” “Espresso” and “Directed by Dave Meyers.” The dreamy, faraway sound of the intro (that sounds vaguely like the one in Katy Perry’s “Chained to the Rhythm”) continues to play as Carpenter, shows off sunglasses (akin to Zendaya’s in the Challengers poster) that reflect what she’s seeing (hot boys). The tune endures as the cinematography shifts from color to black and white. It’s then that the shot shifts its focus to a speedboat cutting through the water. One that, obviously, Carpenter is driving as she puts her hand above her forehead as though in search of something (maybe hard dick). The man riding in the back appears to relish that Carpenter is in control, a vibe that reflects the message Carpenter wanted to get across with the single: “[It’s] kind of about seeing femininity as your superpower, and embracing the confidence of being that bitch.”

    Gomez’s “Love On” radiates a similar confidence, with such faux ominous warnings as, “Wait ‘til I turn my love on…/I’m a rollercoaster ride, baby, jump on/Come on, come on/‘Cause, baby, if you can’t tell (baby, if you can’t tell)/You’re what I wanna love on, oh.” In her accompanying video, directed by Gregory “Greg” Ohrel, the aura is also saturated in a summery mood, with Gomez specifically wanting to channel the South of France (even though the video was shot inside the Villa de Leon in Malibu—L.A. is so good at doubling for various locations, after all). This includes her sitting on a balcony with a picturesque oceanside view while she’s given a dubious manicure from a grudging butler (side note: Carpenter favors a pedicure in her video instead, with pampering being a running motif in both women’s alternate worlds). Gomez’s variety of costume changes (“got you covered like garments”) amid a sea of kissing couples is what stands out the most—along with her passionate consumption of a croissant and coffee. Which brings us back to caffeine as the metaphor Carpenter chooses to wield for the kind of lovelorn feeling she invokes in people (men or otherwise). Except that, much like Britney Spears on “Oops!…I Did It Again,” she can’t help but shrug off anyone who gets too attached. 

    This is exactly why, when the guy on the boat starts trying to “love on” her, she veers sharply so that he falls right off. For an added bonus, she manages to latch onto his wallet before he literally dips out. Because, in addition to pool cars, girls still just wanna have funds. At this moment, the gold credit card is the only object in color before the palette switches out of black and white and again into color. Carpenter subsequently approaches the shore with a lifesaver around her as she clutches the credit card and croons, “I can’t relate to desperation/My ‘give a fucks’ are on vacation.” So, too, is Carpenter herself now that she has a subsidized one via this guy’s plastic. 

    We soon see her on the beach bedecked with a headscarf that’s styled in the Old Hollywood (or babushka) manner as she prances around with an umbrella—these accoutrements (along with a dash of Wes Anderson-inspired cinematography thrown in) lending the old school flavor she wanted for the video. The same old school one that Gomez imbued “Love On” with sonically and visually as well (complete with an array of 60s-inspired ensembles Gomez dons in the video to complement the throwback sound). 

    While both singers favor a chirpy, high-pitched intonation to help carry off lyrics that would otherwise be difficult to “accept” (e.g., Gomez saying, “Why are we conversin’ over this steak tartare when we could be/Somewhere other than here/Makin’ out in the back of a car” and “Or we could make a memoir, yeah/On the back wall of the last stall/In the bathroom at The Bazaar”). And while it might be difficult for some to stomach the more cornball lyrics in “Love On,” Carpenter has a way of making them easier to, er, swallow by painting herself as an aloof femme fatale. Indeed, many of the lyrics feel like pointed shade at Keoghan’s ex/baby mama, Alyson Kierans. For example, “Too bad your ex don’t do it for ya/Walked in and dream came trued it for ya/Soft skin and I perfumed it for ya/I know I Mountain Dew it for ya [this being a line very much in Lana Del Rey’s wheelhouse]/That morning coffee, brewed it for ya/One touch and I brand newed it for ya.” The playful songwriting style, courtesy of Carpenter and co-writers Amy Allen, Steph Jones and Julian Bunetta, renders nouns and adjectives into verbs and turns brands into wordplay. Maybe Carpenter is more Shakespearean than one might think. 

    Granted, Shakespeare never could have fathomed a woman so beach and boy crazy (with female characters like Juliet Capulet only crazy for one boy). Traits Carpenter is happy to showcase as the video continues while she laps up the surfer dudes and an ice cream cone before finally getting her “just deserts” for stealing an overly-into-her man’s credit card and ditching him in the water back at the beginning of this little romp. Of course, that’s the most unrealistic thing about the narrative: a pretty blonde white girl would never get such a comeuppance. Which is probably why Gomez and Carpenter should have swapped concepts. 

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link

  • Selena Gomez’s “Love On” Can Act As Both Sequel or Prequel to “Single Soon”

    Selena Gomez’s “Love On” Can Act As Both Sequel or Prequel to “Single Soon”

    [ad_1]

    As Selena Gomez continues to give listeners a sonic sample of what might constitute her next album, it’s plain to see she’s been in a “playful” mood of late. And it arguably started back up again with “Single Soon” (for, although her collaboration with Rema on a remix of “Calm Down” was playful enough, it was followed up by the melancholic aura of “My Mind & Me”). With “Love On,” Gomez expands on the universe of l’amour that she dissects on “Single Soon,” the former being interpretable as either a prequel or sequel to the narrative presented on the latter (even if unintentional—though if it were Gomez’s bestie, Taylor Swift, doing it, it would be very intentional indeed). 

    As for the “Love On” video, Gomez finds herself in familiar territory: lauding the French (which isn’t always an act that many are willing to partake in). Something she also did in the 2018 video for “Back To You,” a blatant homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou, with Gomez embodying the Anna Karina role of Marianne Renoir. In a similar fashion to that visual, “Love On” also starts with wistful-sounding, “old-timey” French music as the camera pans across a stairway inside the Villa de Leon in Malibu. A stairway filled with couples of all colors and creeds kissing while a nostalgic voice sets the French tone with, “Qu’est-ce que je vais te nommer? Amour. Amour tendre.” We then see Gomez amid the sea of couples with her own “man”: a French bulldog she holds in her arms while wearing a Del Reyian black bow in her hair and a bright pink dress. The first of many “couture pieces” we’ll see in the video, appropriately directed by Frenchman ​​Gregory “Greg” Ohrel. The next one, as a matter of fact, is a blue halter dress paired with a cocktail hat as Gomez sits out on a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean amid other “merrymakers” who are drinking, what else, cocktails. The statue of a naked man behind them is also sure to remind viewers that they’re in France—by way of Los Angeles. Because, as Gomez herself stated, the video was inspired by the two months she spent living there while working on the “musical crime comedy” Emilia Perez. And yet, there’s something decidedly more “South of France” than there is “Parisian” about the visuals. 

    In another scene, Gomez gets meta with a close-up on the Ramon Casas painting entitled “After the Ball,” followed by a pan-down of her lying in the same position with a book and a black dress, just like the exhausted woman in the painting. In contrast to the reason why she might be exhausted in “Single Soon” (her emotions drained from having the same arguments over and over again), any reason she might be drained in “Love On” is likely to be strictly physical, if you take one’s meaning. Though she appears to have plenty of time for rest and relaxation as Ohrel then cuts to a scene of her in a white bathrobe and towel around her head (it’s very Madonna in “Vogue”), it’s probably just so she can restore her energy so as to “turn her love on” again. These days, that love is turned on for record producer Benny Blanco, a clear inspiration for the track (even if Gomez started working on it with co-songwriter Julia Michaels a while back). 

    As such, Gomez has plenty of lascivious lyrics, including, “I deserve an applause for/Keepin’ you up late/‘Til you can see straight.” This being reminiscent of Ariana Grande on “34+35” singing, “Watchin’ movies, but we ain’t seen a thing tonight/I don’t wanna keep you up/But show me, can you keep it up?” This in addition to Gomez channeling Grande on that song when the latter declares, “Baby, you might need a seatbelt when I ride it.” For Gomez, that translates to, “I’m a rollercoaster ride, baby, jump on.” Elsewhere, Gomez favors the Fifth Harmony method of making work analogies that double as sexual ones in the form of: “Clock in, baby, get to work/Night shift, but with all the perks/Time stamping when you fell in love/Time can’t mess with us.” And, because sex and food go hand in hand when it comes to indulgence and desire, there’s plenty of food play in the song and video, too. Chiefly, when we’re given a POV shot from the croissant’s perspective as Gomez downs it like a dick (after dipping it in her coffee, bien sûr). There’s also another scene involving ballerinas and French fries (the ultimate dichotomy). Lyrically, the main “foodism” consists of Gomez chirping, “Why are we conversing over this/Steak tartare, when we could be/Somewhere other than here/Making out in the back of a car?/Or in the back of a bar.” Gomez seemingly does have a thing for ditching the first location and doing something involving a car (if the “Back To You” video is anything to go by). 

    She’s also fond of ditching one outfit for another as we see her change into a retro-inspired look out of the 60s in a form-fitting, rainbow-striped mini dress and high ponytail before then switching into a balletcore frock and topping her head off with yet another ribbon (this one white)—surely Del Rey can’t abide. As night falls on the balcony, Gomez continues to radiate her effusiveness now that her love has been “activated,” dancing casually in a yellow gown with the fabric bunched into a rose shape at the center. Being that this is such a fashion-heavy video, it’s only right that one of the lyrics should be, “If you think about fallin’/Got you covered like garments.” 

    Needless to say, with Gomez being a Cancer, once her love is turned on, it might become overly smothering for some people (save for Tauruses, who can never get enough displays of love and devotion, especially if conveyed through decadence and food). Though maybe not a Pisces like Benny Blanco… If it does, however, Gomez can always revert back to her Sex and the City-esque single girl anthem, “Single Soon”—both prequel and sequel to a song like “Love On,” which speaks so overtly about the romantic, sex-drenched beginnings of relationships rather than the ends. Even though the French are skilled in talking about le fin de l’amour in their art as well (a skill that Taylor Swift, unfortunately, riffed on for the “ME!” video—so thank dieu Gomez came along to rectify that visual for her “better half”).

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link