Unless It Is…

In It’s Not That Deep, Lovato presents a meld between modern pop and their own classic hits from the past. The album is full of songs ready to be shouted from your lungs at the club with your friends, or to blast from your car speakers to pepper up a long drive with a sing-along sesh.

The second track, “Here All Night,” brings out all the moves of a catchy pop tune. Lovato uses literal lyricism in the second verse, singing “I don’t wanna go all natural, I want electronic / ‘Cause if the music ever stops, I might go psychotic.” In the first line, while singing how they want “electronic,” their voice has clearly been digitally altered, causing it to sound electric instead of natural. In that second line, on the word “stops,” the music skips a beat, stopping for a second. Forcing the listener to do more than jam along mindlessly, these details jump out, making listeners pay attention to more than just the catchy beat.

Following “Here All Night” is “Frequency,” which starts off with swiftly stuttered staccato EDM synth beats and Lovato narrating in sync over it. The pre-chorus starts to build musical vocals, but only just before the chorus starts does the beat take a break, paving the way for lingering synth chords. The chorus could practically trick the listener into thinking the beat got fast enough to send them back in time for a chorus straight out of the 2000s. The musical phrasing of “match my fre-quen-cy” feels like such a throwback. It provides a really satisfying contrast against the hyperpop-EDM feel of the verses.

Sitting in the middle of the album, “Sorry to Myself” is the perfect middle-child anthem. This song harkens back to all the best hits of the 2010s, bright synth beats and background vocals popping, with vulnerable lyrics showcasing the kind of self-awareness that only became so prevalent post-2020. She opens up in the chorus, singing “For lying in the mirror, saying, ‘Ooh, this is love’ / For lying in the mirror, pourin’ salt in the cut.” These lyrics dig deep into real struggles with worth and confidence, not blaming anyone but taking responsibility for the negative impact her own actions had on herself. The song ends with a bridge, symbolically showing how this work is still ongoing. One of the lines in this bridge is “Sorry for the hurting, but love how it turned out.” which emphasizes that despite how she is saying “sorry to myself” with this song, she still appreciates the person she has turned out to be amidst the struggles.

In “Kiss,” Lovato digs deeper into her electronic influences, opening with EDM-esque synth beats while her singing comes through transiently. In the first line of the pre-chorus, she drops the album title, singing: “It’s not that deep unless you want it to be,” hinting at how the album itself can either be taken at face value, or be analyzed away. Lovato brings out more literal lyrics in this piece, breaking the fourth wall as she sings “Take me to the chorus!” While listening, you can practically see rave spotlights roaming the crowd in time with the beat.

Lovato leans deeply back into their pop background with It’s Not That Deep, an album full of catchy tunes, auditorily bridging the gap between their first hits to all of the iconic pop hits of today.