Demi Lovato’s It’s Not That Deep is what we’ve been waiting for

Say what you want, but she’s always been on the pulse of the current times despite starting as a Disney export and maybe missing a few beats here and there. With Confident’s (2015) very of-the-time pop blending into the softer yet more assured Tell Me You Love Me (2017), through to the softer still Dancing With The Devil…The Art of Starting Over (2021) before handbrake turning into the rock-led HOLY FVCK (2022) and reimagining her previous works in the same vein with REVAMPED in 2023. It feels somewhat apt that she’s returning to pop, but this time she’s tapping into the sound of 2025 with her own point of view holding strong throughout the record. “It’s not that deep unless you want it to be” she sings, alluding maybe to the intensity with which the world so often scrutinises her – but this time, she simply doesn’t care.

While the references on It’s Not That Deep may be obvious at points, the way in which they’ve been executed excuses them entirely. Yes, there’s going to be comparisons to Brat and Charli XCX, but this record is so much more than that – it’s Confessions on A Dance Floor, it’s Teenage Dream, it’s Midnight Sun, it’s NOTD, Cheat Codes, Zedd, and most of all; it’s so very Demi Lovato. Production across the album is incredibly tight which makes an end-to-end listen a genuinely fun experience, and Lovato keeps the mood light with lyrics clever enough to stir some emotion but light enough to relate to most. It’s not hard to get the gist of, say, “Kiss”, but that’s the point, isn’t it? We’re not here to tap into trauma or be blown over with confessional, gut-wrenching and dramatic pop bangers, we’re here to keep the vibe going and keep things, well, not too deep.

Singles “Fast” and “Here All Night” hold their own in the record, each with their driving, dancefloor-commanding beats, and this carries through into the euphoric “Little Bit” that revels in the here and now, and “Say It” that has Lovato demanding words of affirmation over a strutting, stomping four-to-the-floor. Standout track “Frequency” smacks you in the face pretty much immediately with its heavy beat and sung-rapped vocal, and “Kiss”, on that note, is probably the best showcase of that; incredible production topped with a (literal) tongue-in-cheek message, delivered with the right blend of pared back, harmonic, and belted out vocals – but really, it’s where the album should’ve ended.

Yes, there are slower (but still very much beat driven) moments on the album with the optimistic breakup track “Let You Go” sounding like it’s been plucked from the 1989 tracklist, and “In My Head” showing a more vulnerable side to Lovato’s delivery – but the final two tracks pivot a little too much and feel out of place when tacked onto the end of the record. “Before I Knew You,” while head-bopping, needs a little more oomph from Lovato to make it believable, but “Ghost” is the ballad it simply didn’t need. It’s great to hear her show the full capability of her vocal abilities, but from the disco-dancing, catwalk-strutting vibe of the record it’s at risk of giving audial and thematic whiplash.

This record is the return of Demi Lovato that we knew and loved in the mid 2010s but upgraded to a person fully realised and content with themselves not simply as a person but as an artist dipping their toes into dance music through the lens of pop. Lovato may jump from genre to genre and sound to sound, but each time she does she goes all in. It’s Not That Deep is no different, and it delivers successfully on its objective to keep things light and easy while dancing the night away. It’s not that deep, but it might just be Lovato’s best effort yet.