Demi Lovato keeps things easy, breezy on ‘It’s Not That Deep’

In 2022, Demi Lovato was putting her pop music career to rest. She hosted a funeral for it after a decade of delivering some of the biggest hits of the late aughts and 2010’s. Gone were the sweat-soaked bangers and sweet string arrangements of her early career. She had her sights set on a darker sound, which would eventually manifest itself with the release of her eighth album HOLY FVCK later that year. 

A year after HOLY FVCK embraced a no-holds-barred rock sound that the pop-punk of her early career only flirted with, she released REVAMPED, a collection of 10 of her hits reimagined through this new rock lens. For all intents and purposes, the old Demi couldn’t come to the phone anymore. 

About three years after that funeral and here we are, with a return to form of sorts — because not even Demi Lovato can resist pop’s undeniable pull. Her ninth studio LP It’s Not That Deep, a sleek pop record that positions Lovato as a sweat-soaked, club-savvy narrator guiding listeners through a night on the dance floor. True to its title, It’s Not That Deep does not reinvent any wheels or challenge listeners to think critically about its ethos. Rather, it offers a smooth 33-minute ride intended to help shake off any inhibitions, led by one of contemporary music’s strongest vocalists. 

Lead single “Fast” first primed Lovato for her pop return with a flirty, puttering club anthem crafted to soundtrack any given Friday night out. The single is the slinkiest thing Lovato has released in years, but doesn’t quite harness the addictive anthem-making spirit her previous lead singles have historically had (think: “Cool For the Summer,” “Sorry Not Sorry”). The song’s production makes up for any lyrical losses (most of the song leans on the refrain “I wanna go fast, I wanna go hard/I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are”), even if it’s not quite built for arena chants.  

Zhone, the producer behind much of Zara Larsson’s recent Midnight Sun and Troye Sivan’s “Rush,” has his fingerprints across the entire record and provides a slick, synth-forward foundation for Lovato to lay her powerhouse pipes over. The sonic playground constructed sits comfortably in a post-Brat landscape, tightening its scope to club-focused anthems that are fun, but don’t quite propel to the heights of its references. Zhone’s production across It’s Not That Deep pulls back from the weirder moments found in his production on Midnight Sun and on Kesha’s . (Period). 

Songs like “Frequency” showcase Lovato’s huge voice in its chorus, but box it in for verses in a talk-sing cadence not all that dissimilar from Charli xcx’s now-signature rhythm — which itself is not all that distantly related to Madonna’s flow on records like 1992’s Erotica. On any Lovato record, her voice is by far the most powerful instrument. Whether harnessed to its full potential on propulsive, thudding anthems or slid across sultry, pop-leaning R&B (like on 2017’s Tell Me You Love Me), her voice and vocal treatment is often the determining factor of the song’s impact. On It’s Not That Deep, her voice is given its due spotlight often enough, but every now and then sounds almost buried just beneath the production’s top layer, somehow processed underneath the electro-sheen. Never is it done to degrees that warrant uncomfortability or render it unlistenable, but it does inadvertently and unnecessarily cloak it.   

From a lyrical standpoint, the record’s title and single “Kiss” say it best: “It’s not that deep unless you want it to be.” Third single “Kiss” is among the shallower moments (“I kiss for fun, it’s fun to kiss/I use my tongue la-la-la-like this”) on the album but remains catchy — especially if one is two vodka sours in. The LP’s title acts as a kind of workaround for the to-the-point thematic makeup of the record, almost aiming to get ahead of criticism by explaining that Lovato is in on things and isn’t aiming for anything beyond palatable, upbeat dance pop. This device, however idle, does in fact remind listeners throughout the record’s run time that these songs aren’t particularly supposed to inspire introspection. Save for a few moments scattered across (“Sorry to Myself” and album closer “Ghost”), It’s Not That Deep holds true to its titular promise. 

Will this record be Lovato’s defining work for decades to come? Likely not. Does it contribute much to the zeitgeist? Arguably not. It’s Not That Deep sounds and feels like the kind of record Lovato deserves to enjoy after all that she has excavated on previous LPs. The only shame is that we miss out on what it might be like to hear a more impassioned pop comeback from one of this generation’s greatest powerhouses.  

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