this is just really not my kind of music at the end of the day but i appreciate it for what it is. i only knew “hello” before going into it so i didn’t really have any expectations—it was pleasant to listen to overall. i feel quite neutral about the whole thing although i am able to recognize that she is objectively very talented as a singer. some of the arrangements were pretty cool.
A lot of these songs are super beautiful and she is one of the most beautiful singers of our time obviouslyyyyy. But it's so hard to hear this and not feel like it's "of it's time" because these songs feel so associated with a certain period of music. But when I actually think about it, songs like "Water Under the Bridge" and "Hello" are not actually "what music sounded like in 2015" because there wasn't really anything else like that at the time, it's just that the songs were so ubiquitous that it felt like it was the universal sound. Unfortunately that took away from my enjoyment of the album overall because it made it sound dated to me WHICH I KNOW ISN'T FAIR...but I just couldn't fully get into it for that reason. But the songs that are good are soooo good so I was really trying to hear them for what they were. I don't think this is actually her strongest album though because it lags for me in the second half and the songs start to sound a bit too similar for me.