Not ones for letting their collaborative project/general ode to love (more specifically, their love) fall by the wayside, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco have seen fit to release a deluxe edition of I Said I Love You First just under two months since it dropped on March 21st (whereas it took Ariana Grande slightly over a full year to release the deluxe of Eternal Sunshine, Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead). And while the offerings are a solid edition to the record, the bulk of the songs are “reworkings” via remixed, acoustic or live versions. Which ultimately spells “cash grab” (because, obviously, The Beatles were wrong when they said, “Can’t buy me love”—but then, they also said, “Your lovin’ give me a thrill/But your lovin’ don’t pay my bills.” Unless, of course, you’re monetizing it like Selena and Benny.).
However, the “new” (even if “Stained” doesn’t technically fall into that category) songs added to the tracklist have their merit, though “That’s When I’ll Care” isn’t one of them. Mainly because it ought to have more sting considering it works as both an ex or critic diss track (those becoming ever more common, and recently perfected by Ariana Grande on “Hampstead”—but the true progenitor of the critic takedown in song form is Madonna via “Human Nature”). But maybe the “la-di-da” sound of it (presented with a faint mid-tempo “hoedown”-inspired backing track, produced by Ian Kirkpatrick and Blanco) is meant to heighten the theme of the song, which is that Gomez doesn’t give a fuck about critical opinions (even if most people who insist on that of course do). To highlight that in the first verse, Gomez sings, “The way you talk about me, my God, it’s never-ending/Resentment only hurts the person doing the resenting/Could probably try more, but I’d just be pretending/It’s hard to shed a tear when all my former fucks are pending” (or, as Sabrina Carpenter would say, “My give a fucks are on vacation”).
It’s then that Gomez leads into the not-so-“sick burn” of a chorus, “I just really, hmm, wanted you to know [reminding one of Lana Del Rey saying the same on “Summertime Sadness”], oh-oh/When the cows come home and when pigs start to fly/And funerals don’t have flowers and movies don’t make me cry/When you can’t smell the salt in the beaches’ air/Whеn I can walk in public without a single stare/Oh, that’s when I’ll carе.” Though, to be fair, many of these scenarios could end up happening (e.g., if people can no longer afford flowers for funerals because they’ve gotten too expensive amid the climate change crisis, movies aren’t even made by humans anymore because AI took over, there’s no salt smell in the air by beaches because it’s a toxic chemicals smell instead and Gomez ends up forgotten once she reaches a certain age because that’s what happens to most famous women—hell, maybe even pigs could start flying with enough fucked-up mutations caused by all the corporate overlord tinkering). In other words, Gomez isn’t doing an ironclad job of proving how little she cares with these adynatons.
And, talking of lack of originality, Gomez feels obliged to wrap the song up with an overt Carly Simon reference when she goads, “You probably thought this song’s about you.” She then further taunts, “You can’t live without me, but I’m living without you/Without you, without you/Yeah, this song’s about you/You can’t live without me, but I’m living without you.” And yet, if the song really is about her detractors, there’s no denying that all their talk about her is in part what keeps her “in business” (a.k.a. living), so to speak.
And now, it helps keep Blanco in business, too. Which is perhaps why Gomez wants to give him his lyrical shot on the track that follows, “Talk.” Of all the songs on the now “complete” version of the record, it’s the one that allows Blanco to sing the most. This is probably why it can sound so strange at times. Well, that and because it samples from, of all things, Cake’s “Never There.” A song that isn’t necessarily ideal for conveying “healthy” romantic feelings when taking into account that the original lyrics were rather obsessive and the video painted the object of John McCrea’s affection as a philanderess who couldn’t care less about him. Even so, the duo opts to rework the track with lyrics as cringe as, “I know you just left, but damn, I need you right back/I’ma call you Daddy ‘cause I know you like that/Go recharge your batteries, come back to me, and make your mama proud” (talk about vindicating Freud’s theories about those we’re sexually attracted to). To match that cringiness, Gomez and Blanco made an accompanying video centered on going to the prom together (a romantic gesture on Blanco’s part, as he knows Gomez never had the chance to go to prom, being a child/teenage actor and all). But at least they were able to financially support Photo Makers in the SouthBay Pavilion in the process (including the free publicity garnered by the video).
The tone shifts on “Stained,” the song that “Selenators” have been obsessing over for the past eight years, starting when the demo version leaked online in 2017 (Gomez had originally shared a clip of the track via Snapchat in 2016). And that “love” for the song only increased in hindsight knowing that Blanco had originally produced it as well. Even if it was conceived during an era when Gomez would have been referring to Justin Bieber in her discussions of being “stained.” As for the track in its final form, production comes from Cashmere Cat and Robopop, rendering it into a slow-tempo, instrumentally sparse ballad. Lyrically, Gomez also takes a page from her bestie, Taylor Swift, by talking about a former flame “staining” (a.k.a. tainting) her. For Swift, being stained or “marked” comes up a lot, including on tracks like “Clean” (“You’re still all over me/Like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear”), “Cardigan” (“Marked me like a bloodstain”) and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” (“Stained glass windows in my mind/I regret you all the time”). As for “marked” that word shows up on “This Love” (“This love left a permanent mark”), “Dress” (“Made your mark on me”) and “Carolina” (“Indelible scars, pivotal marks”).
But it’s one non-stain-related verse of Swift’s in particular that Gomez truly channels on “Stained.” Namely, the one on “Down Bad” when she sings, “Did you really beam me up?/In a cloud of sparkling dust/Just to do experiments on/Tell me I was the chosen one/Show me that this world is bigger than us/Then sent me back where I came from/For a moment I knew cosmic love.” Gomez translates that more succinctly to, “You had a way of making me feel special, yeah/Then take it away and say I wasn’t special, no.” Ah, as Anjelica Huston once said (while playing Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent a.k.a. the Wicked/Evil Stepmother in Ever After), “Men are so fickle, aren’t they? One minute they’re spouting sonnets and the next, you’re back to being the hired help.” Perhaps that won’t be the case with Gomez and Blanco, but one never knows.
To lighten the mood for the next song, Gomez and Blanco opt to bring in the remix reinforcements with “Bluest Flame (DJ Sliink Remix).” Co-produced by Blanco, Dylan Brady and Cashmere Cat, the track is given less of a Charli XCX sound and more of a full-tilt Spring Breakers one (which basically means Skrillex). And just when the listener doesn’t think they can possibly keep up with the tempo much longer, Gomez gives another bout of whiplash by slowing it way down with the “Live from Vevo” version of “How Does It Feel to Be Forgotten.” In said “live” video (once again seeing Gomez slap a Lana Del Rey aesthetic onto it), which is really a “lyric video,” Gomez and Blanco “canoodle” in a nature setting. This clearly being a flex against whoever she’s talking to when she taunts, “He love me, I love him/Look at you/Just look at you now/You’re so embarrassing/Go cry where no one’s watching/How does it feel to be forgotten?” As for the “live” sound of the song, it does little to improve or alter the original in any way, making it seem like the most “filler” track of the deluxe edition.
At least with the song that follows, “Call Me When You Break Up,” there is actually a noticeably different sound to the acoustic version of it (appearing as track three on the “plain” version of the album). Indeed, Gracie Abrams’ vocals are especially enhanced on this “bare bones” iteration of the song, radiating a more palpably morose aura than what’s present on the single’s “pop” form.
Gomez and Blanco also put a bit more effort into reworking “Cowboy,” presently giving GloRilla a full-on feature instead of just her non sequitur spoken word part that shows up on the end of the original (and also on the remix). Perhaps getting GloRilla to say all the raunchier things that Gomez couldn’t possible bring herself to do, it’s the former who declares, “Bae, that dick so good and strong/But that pullout game so weak [a phrase one might recognize from “WAP”]/Ain’t tryna be yo baby mama, so baby, can you pull out please?/Bounce on me like 24s/Wet that bih like curry/Ride it like the beat, then throw it back like Thursday/I taught him how to eat it/Yeah baby, just like that/It’s constantly slipping out.” Again, more “WAP” vibes.
And, to that point, contrasting the sentiments of “Cowboy” with I Said I Love You First…And You Said It Back’s closing track, “Guess You Could Say I’m in Love,” was likely a, er, stroke of “deliberate” irony (à la Del Rey placing the “Judah Smith Interlude” after “A&W” on Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd). Or maybe it’s Gomez and Blanco’s way of saying that horniness and romance are natural…bedfellows. And, speaking of bedfellows, Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez co-produced the song with Blanco and Cashmere Cat, hence the familiar “dreampop” sound that band is known for appearing here as well (along with a sprinkle of Band of Horses flavor).
As the big finale, Gomez and Blanco are particularly over the top with the publicly declarative stance they’ve taken about their love. Gomez gets the ball rolling on that front by announcing, “Have I told you how I feel lately? [which sounds a bit like Rod Stewart asking, “Have I told you lately that I love you?”]/Like a pretty pin-up girl always/I believe that love is real, take me/To the edge until I’m yours, I’ll wait.” She then dives into the chorus, “And I don’t wanna cry no more/I don’t wanna lie no more/I guess you could say I’m in love/And I don’t wanna cry no more/I don’t wanna die no more/I guess you could say I’m in love.” For added “optimism cachet,” when Gomez says, “Guess you could say I’m in love,” there’s a certain “Just open your heart and your mind” (from Wilson Phillips’ “Hold On”) inflection to it.
Acting as the Christian de Neuvillette for Blanco, Gonzalez then chimes in on the second verse to say, “Have I told you how I feel lately?/Like a hero in those old movies/I believe that love is real, too sweet/To be anything but yours always.” And yes, perhaps Gonzalez had to say this instead of Blanco because the audience can only take so much of this undiluted “lovefest” fare from Belena (the clear choice for their “‘ship” nickname). So, hopefully, this is enough “spreading the love” (a.k.a. their love) for them for a while. Or at least until (or if) the wedding happens. But a joint tour still seems more likely than a marriage ceremony at this point.
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