Songs Rhino loves, #21: Selena Gomez - “Bad Liar”

A psychologically complex, devastating pop song.

Selena Gomez is one of those celebrities who occasionally inspires derision that I believe is at least somewhat unmerited, simply because she is so much more famous than is at all healthy and there are some quarters in which she is regarded as not having done very much to earn that kind of at least allegedly privileged status. And for what it’s worth, the only full-length album of hers that I’ve heard, which is called Rare, is admittedly not very good. But what I admire about her is that, as a vocal performer, she carries herself with an absolutely unearthly, uncanny poise – she reminds me of the great Australian actor Nicole Kidman, whom I adore, in that she always seems as if she is in complete and precise control of whatever emotion she has in mind to project at a given time. Instead of making her seem robotic, this gives her an unforced grace that she can bring to the songs she sings, even if there is also a certain sangfroid to them. The song I’m about to link you to is the only song she’s ever made that I especially love, but I think it’s such a masterpiece that it only very narrowly misses the list of my top 100 songs of all time across genres, and I think it will be pretty simple to me to explain to you why that is.

If I understand things correctly, there’s been a lot of talk in the tabloids and whatnot over the course of the past several years about whether or not Selena Gomez is the person about whom Justin Bieber wrote his deeply tuneful but incredibly toxic “Fuck you!“ song “Love Yourself”. “Love Yourself” is an immaculately made pop song, but it’s so full of cruelty and vituperation directed at its subject that it’s very difficult for me to listen to, and I am under the impression that Selena Gomez is the target of Bieber’s ire in that specific song. This is a painful thing to contemplate, because the public doesn’t know Gomez to have done anything to deserve that kind of wickedness, but in particular, that background makes it an almost seismically emotionally thorny endeavour for me to listen to “Bad Liar”.

You see, “Bad Liar” is all about Selena Gomez losing her fucking mind – it makes me worry from her mental health every time I listen to it, because she seems so comprehensively destroyed by the fact that she urgently wants her ex-partner back that only the poise and grace to which I had earlier referred, both of which are on ample display, make it possible for me to endure the song without becoming seriously vicariously stressed out. The upshot for me is that I think Gomez‘s vocal performance on this song is one of the most amazing in pop music history – the most direct and the most apt comparison I can think of is the “vocal panic attack“ you can hear Levi Stubbs having on the masterful 1967 Four Tops single “Bernadette”, which is the best thing that band ever did. “Bernadette” also happens to be one of the 20 or so greatest songs ever recorded in any genre across more than 80 years of pop music, so when something about your song is that good, you have a lot to be proud of. I genuinely think this song is worthy of being mentioned in that company, which is why I’m recommending it to you so strongly even though it’s something of an emotional heart attack. The Talking Heads sample upon which the beat is built only adds to the itchy and nervy quality that pervades it. There’s also a lithe and sinuous quality to Gomez‘s voice that speaks to me of unflappable grace maintained on the surface while her insides are crumbling. I can’t recommend this song more heartily, although I almost wish I could give you all hazmat suits to wear so that you could brace for the impact. Maybe this will just scan as a fluffy pop song to y’all, but to me it’s an emotional earthquake, and I recommend it. You can listen to it on YouTube here or on Spotify here.