Review: Selena Gomez is more like Janet Jackson than Miley Cyrus on modest ‘Revival’

Selena Gomez hit all the usual notes in the run-up to “Revival,� the first album this former Disney Channel star has made outside the House of Mouse.

There was a sexed-up lead single, “Good for You,� with a roguish guest verse from rapper ASAP Rocky. There was the song’s music video, in which Gomez writhes on a sofa before jumping in the shower. And there were comments in interviews about her hard-won liberation from the repressive constraints of the Disney machine.

So far, so Miley.

Yet that’s where Gomez, 23, stopped following the script for a tween idol looking to grow up in public. Far from a scorched-earth rebranding a la Cyrus’ 2013 raunchfest “Bangerz,� “Revival� turns out to be surprisingly modest, from its midtempo pacing to its thoughtful introspection.

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Even “Good for You,� which seemed to presage an album long on breathy bedroom talk, is less about titillation than female solidarity, she told Billboard in a cover story that also revealed she’d recently entered rehab not for addiction but for treatment of lupus.

Weeks after Cyrus released an unlistenable, indulgent freak-out with the Flaming Lips, “Revival� feels almost radical in its judiciousness.

Am I making Gomez sound like Natalie Merchant? OK, hold up.

Collaborating with Top 40 regulars like Benny Blanco, Stargate and the Swedish duo Mattman & Robin (who also worked on “1989� by Gomez’s pal Taylor Swift), the singer juices her once-edgeless music with some grabby textures, as in the throbbing dance cut “Body Heat� and “Me & the Rhythm,� an ’80s-flavored jam about how “everybody wants to be touched.�

In the title track, where she says it’s “my time to butterfly,� Gomez cribs a distinctive rhyming pattern associated with the Atlanta rap group Migos. She borrows even more boldly in “Same Old Love,� which approximates Charli XCX’s shouty electro-pop with help from Charli XCX, who co-wrote the song (and was maybe the one to push Gomez to use a four-letter word).

For most of “Revival,� though, the singer avoids the kind of wild-child impertinence we’re accustomed to hearing from someone in her position.

“The world can be a nasty place,� she declares in “Kill Em with Kindness,� inspired by the ungentle tabloid chatter regarding her health and her relationship with Justin Bieber. And that’s true enough, of course — truer for Gomez than for some. Yet her approach isn’t to light up Just Jared but to “put out the fire before igniting.�

“We don’t have to fall from grace,� she insists over an airy synth whoosh, and what’s remarkable is how steadied she seems by such a facile conviction. “Sober� addresses an unreliable lover — a real jerk, if we’re being honest — in deeply reasonable language; “Camouflage� finds Gomez “riding alone on the 405,� clearly taking solace in the act.

Even “Hands to Myself,� ostensibly about how she can’t keep them that way, is a study in restraint, with the singer practically whispering over an uncharacteristically delicate groove by producer Max Martin. It’s not the only song on “Revival� that made me think of the strong new Janet Jackson album, “Unbreakable.�

Is that a strange position for a 23-year-old to be in? Perhaps. But remember that, three decades ago, Jackson was herself the apple-cheeked kid in search of liberation. If Gomez is finding freedom in control, kudos to her for getting there so quickly.

Twitter: @mikaelwood

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