A child star’s journey to adulthood has never been easy, and is usually full of setbacks (drug abuse, mental problems, messy relationships, leaked personal pictures and tapes just to name a few). Selena Gomez went from child star to on and off again girlfriend of Justin Bieber. Now, all of that is behind her. She is now “a grown and independent woman who don’t need no man”, and this clearly shows in her new album” Revival”.

Through “Revival”, Selena makes it pretty clear that she is all grown up. The album’s whole theme is about emotional, professional, and even sexual awakenings.

“Revival” is rather different from her past albums. That whole fragile teenage bubble pop princess persona is gone. Instead, she is fully a woman: independent and confident.

Half of the album is comprised of heavy electro-pop, dance tracks packed with rhythms and catchy melodies that will have you dance like you have never danced before. On these tracks, it’s impressive just how her voice glides alongside the beat as she experiments with different kinds of sounds and overall feelings.

From the stunning ”Kill them with Kindness” and” Hand To Myself” to the Jennifer Lopez influenced ”Body Heat”, it truly feels like Selena is finally free to do what she wants to do.  Especially, although only appears in the Deluxe edition,”Me & My Girls” is an excellent dance track. With clear influence from tropical music, Selena states “No jodas, nosotras”, warning the boys not to mess with her.

The other half is what makes this album her most mature and personal yet. Through emotional tracks such as” Revival”, “Camouflage”, and “Sober”, we really start to see more of her life behind the scenes and understand her personal struggles.

Her first single off this album,”Good For You”, which is hands down one of the best tracks of her career, features sultry vocals and the insanely catchy R&B melodies. It is the definition of ”sexy done in the right way”.

“Cause I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh/ I just wanna look good for you, good for you, uh-huh,” Selena sings on the track Like she explained in an interview, she is tastefully “taking ownership of her sexuality”.

This album’s biggest downside is that the songs flow in a rather disruptive way, not as smoothly as they should. The tracks are arranged in a way that makes the listener quite unsure of how they are supposed to feel: dance the night away on one track then cry their faces off on another? That definitely makes the overall mood of the album quite confusing.

Once again, Selena has truly grown this time around: as a performer, an artist, a vocalist, and a woman.” Revival” is a huge improvement compared to her last album, which was an overproduced chaos.

This time around, her voice truly shines through each and every track with impressive versatility. Most importantly, it has a clear direction and Selena is doing exactly what she should be doing. Just like she sings on the opening of the album, this is clearly her ”time to butterfly”.