Selena Gomez's first two albums never quite managed to separate her music from her main gig as a Disney Channel star. But with the final episode of Wizards of Waverly Place in the can, 18-year-old Gomez begins to grow into her musical identity with a set of bright and buzzy techno-disco tunes.
On When the Sun Goes Down, Gomez takes on a bit of Britney Spears' clubby femme fatale and a little of Katy Perry's sexy role tweaker (both contributed songs to the album), but she hasn't turned her back on the young female audience that looks up to her as a role model. "Who says you're the only one that's hurting?" she sings in the girl-power lead single, Who Says, noting that self-doubt is "the price of beauty."
Even the album's most overtly sexual song, We Own the Night, tells its story with tame language. Compared with recent Top 40 hits from Rihanna and Enrique Iglesias, lyrics like "Is it all right if I'm with you for the night" sound positively modest. Such restraint, along with a rather conventional approach to dance-pop, may keep this music out of anything but all-ages dance clubs, but undeniably catchy singles Who Says and Love You Like a Love Song suggest that she's on the right track as she transitions into adulthood.