Customer Reviews

A Year Without Rain [Deluxe Edition]

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First off, I love Selena Gomez as an actress and as a role model. If you look at the likes of her contemporaries like Miley Cyrus or Emily Osment who are going a sexualized/edgy route with their music and movies, Selena stands out because she is simply NOT turning into a bona fide sellout.
You will not find a song on this album that talks about getting drunk and partying irresponsibly (like Katy Perry or Ke$ha), or being arrogant and promiscuous (like Miley Cyrus' "Can't Be Tamed"). And that's what I really like about her, this album is mature and fun at the same time. She is reaching for an older audience while still connecting with her younger audience.

I really enjoy all of these songs on this album. My absolute favorites are the soaring "A Year Without Rain", the effervescent song "Off The Chain", the feel-good dance hall jam "Spotlight", and the hauntingly beautiful ballad "Ghost of You". This album is so much better lyrically, vocally, and stylistically than her debut "Kiss & Tell". This album "A Year Without Rain" is strictly dance/techno pop and its very cohesive and calculated (in a good way). "Kiss & Tell" was too all over the place for me, but it was her learning album of where she want's to go with her music. It's obvious after "Naturally" that she chose the dance route because it suits her voice wonderfully.

Speaking of Selena's voice, I am throughly impressed and happy that her voice has matured so much. She seems to have more control and her high notes are so pretty, especially in the song "A Year Without Rain". The one thing I do miss from "Kiss & Tell" was how much more raw it was compared to this album. This album is so slick, shiny and processed to perfection. Which I don't necessarily have a problem with since this is a dance pop album.

Some of the complaints I have read on iTunes reviews are talking about how auto-tuned this album is and that the band is pretty much non-existent. Pop listeners need to remember that this is 2010 and the use of auto-tune is on almost every pop album out these days. It's the trend nowadays and it will pass, but for now this is what is "hot". Hollywood Records has an especially big liking to using auto-tune these days. Listen to Miley Cyrus' album "Can't Be Tamed" and you will hear that it's so overproduced and so auto-tuned you may not be able to hear the real Miley in the songs. At least with "A Year Without Rain" I can still distinguish this is Selena Gomez singing. It's not hardly as overproduced as Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment (like her new songs "Let's Be Friends" and "Lovesick") or Ke$ha so I'm thankful for that at least.

About the band also known as "The Scene", they are really just there to help her perform live. Just because they are a band doesn't mean that they have to take turns being the vocalists. This band is centered around Selena Gomez, we all now that. We didn't buy this CD solely to hear "The Scene" play some instruments, so come on people stop complaining about nothing.

Overall, this is a fantastic album if you love Selena Gomez and dance pop music. If you are looking for rock songs, this is the wrong album for you. Selena's voice has grown so much from "Kiss & Tell" and this album just marks the beginning of a successful, long career in acting, singing and designing fashion. I would recommend this CD to anyone looking for fun music by a talented, beautiful, wonderful role model: Selena Gomez.

You could call me a strict parent - I am very picky about what I will allow my daughter to listen to or watch - and so far Selena Gomez has been great. You will find no Miley Cyrus or Justin Beiber at my house - but Selena Gomez comes off much more responsible and together. The extra DVD that came with this cd was so heartfelt and genuine and was a peek into what she is really like as a person. LOVED IT!! The music in my opinion is mostly for a younger audience - sort of bubblegum, but a couple tracks I do find myself singing along with my daughter. Overall, anything Selena gomez I think is a good choice!

First, let me just say that Gomez has an incredible voice and is a wonderful actress. Her choice of notes and voice phrasing is pleasing to the ears. It's hard to come across triple-threats (especially for her age) that have a stage/on-screen appearance like she does. Definitely one of America's sweethearts, Gomez will no doubt go far with her time in the limelight.

However, her sophomore effort A Year Without Rain, was disappointing IMHO. I was excited to rush out today and pick up both pressings of AYWR (regular and deluxe), as I am an avid Gomez supporter. I won't go through each song picking out the meticulous details of why and how each song was blah blah blah. Just know that this album is incredibly devoid of guitars and any rock-esque edge her debut CD(Kiss & Tell) had. Granted, Gomez wanted more dance-oriented material with a hint of techno on this album. Even so, I found it very light and forgettable. I can't see dance/techno fans being drawn to this release for the music alone...considering the tons of other well established options out there. The only standout tracks for me were "Rock God" and "Live Like There's No Tomorrow". I found the use and somewhat mockery (towards another Disney star) of the phrase "Rock Mafia" in the former pretty funny. "Live Like There's No Tommorrow" is a saving grace...a beacon in the night if you will, for this play list. The rest of it sounds like the writing and composition was rushed and just demoed on a synthesizer. I am in no way criticizing her voice...just the music and writing itself. At least don't put the songs "Ghost OF YOU" and "Sick OF YOU" side-by-side. Even when I was opening up the mini poster inside of the Deluxe Edition, expecting rays of light and a goddess of demi-like proportions to jump out of the paper...I found myself looking at a mini calender with a banana-yellow Selena on stilts. Yep, I'm not joking.

She needs to stop doing any covers and bring Ethan, Joey and Greg back with full force. Gomez has a real chance to break away from the post-Disney cookie-cutter-curse. When I saw her for her homecoming show last year (Dallas, House of Blues)...she was THRASHING to the guitar solos. The performance was top-notch and she was rockin'. I just can't see that same type of energy being used on this new album. If she continues with this direction I have a feeling "The Scene" part of her title will disappear. Those guys will move on to some real bands. Again, she's a fantastic singer and one of the most beautiful girls on this planet, but for this album she needs to STOP & ERASE. I know it's blasphemy to say anything negative about everyone's fave wizard...but the music really just didn't measure up to Kiss & Tell. JMO. Peace.

first im gonna say im an older Fan of selena Gomez.
I wanted to get this album for some time and finally came across it recenty. its nothing special but it is an upbeat album and makes you want to sing and dance which is what her music is meant to do.
i have not heard her music before this but its targeted towards teen and tweens of course but the songs are more mature and they are about all things people and of course teens go through like love and break ups and having fun. the lyrics like i said are mature as i heard her music for this album would be more than just bubble gum pop that she has done before. selena gomez is a good singer, she does not write her own songs at least for this album it is called selena and the scene after all which is the name of her band that she plays with.
all in all i found it to be good music to make you feel better and you can tell of some ones pain if you listen to the lyrics which is what all people should do not just the music when you hear a song. one more thing selena is another disney star that put out an album and its Good if you wanna have some fun.

Wow! I was amazed with this album. It's way better then Sel's first CD "Kiss and Tell." I thought the music was very catchy and had hardly any questionable or inappropriete lyrics (except Rock God.) I'm 12 1/2, but I think it would be appropriete for any age. The CD is AMAZING! Here is my rating of each song:

1."Round and Round"-4/5 I think this is a great song to dance to, but its a little boring after a while.
2."A Year Without Rain"-5/5 This is one of my fave songs. She has beautiful vocals in it.
3."Rock God"-5/5 This is an awesome, catchy dance number, but my be inapropriete for younger kids.
4."Off The Chain"-5/5 The song is a heartfelt tune that everybody will love.
5."Summers Not Hot"-3/5 I liked this song, but it was very cheesy.
6."Intuition"-3/5 Sappy but fun song.
7."Spotlight"-5/5 Beautiful!!!!!!!!
8."Ghost of You"- Best song on Cd!!!!!!!!
9."Sick of You"-1/5 Worst of them all. Super lame!
10."Live like theres no Tomorrow"-4/5Its Beautiful, but made me cry!

I really like this, an awesome follow to ''Kiss & Tell'' which I have as well. The deluxe edition rocks! So I'll review the 13 songs and the DVD.

Round & Round - This song is a great start for the album, the song and video are catchy, Selena looks so cool in the video. Not a lot to say, I like to play the song round and round and round and round :P
A Year Without Rain - The song is really quiet comparing to the first one, but it's beautiful, about a person Selena really needs and she can't live without otherwise it's a year without rain :D. I like the video too, in the desert.
Rock God - I like hearing Katy's back vocals here, it's a good song. I've heard not a lot of people like it, I think it's just good.
Off The Chain - This is a sweet song, I really like when she says ''Your love is off the chain, chain'' and keeps repeating 'chain'. Catchy song as well.
Summer's Not Hot - This is my favorite song, absolutely, even more when Summer's coming here in my country (maybe in other countries Winter's coming, right?). It's catchy, I love when she says ''Vamos a la playa'' and the song is really fun, I'd like to dance to it this Summer :P
Intuition - Idk what to say, it's a nice song, not my favorite but I like the lyrics.
Spotlight - This is my second favorite one, it's a song for ''those days'' we all have, it's a really liberating song, that's why I love it.
Ghost Of You - This one is great, maybe too quiet, but I think there's a lot of feelings in this song.
Sick Of You - I think the beat is similar to ''Summer's Not Hot'', I like Selena's mood, it's really liberating too.
Live Like There's No Tomorrow - This has to be my third favorite song, it's wonderful, this song is from Ramona & Beezus which is a movie I loved. It's a really awesome ballad by Selena. It's good to close the standard edition, but this time it's not the last song because it's the Deluxe edition.
Round & Round (Dave Audé Radio Remix) - I like this remix, it's in the Deluxe edition bonus tracks, it brings more energy to the original song and it's good to dance.
A Year Without Rain (EK's Future Classic Remix - Radio Edit) - A really long title, but the song it's really great, good to dance as well.
Un Año Sin Ver Llover (A Year Without Rain - Spanish Version) - I understood this because my native language is Spanish, I like the lyrics, maybe better than the English version for me. It's good to close the album.


The DVD is awesome, I loved ''Girl Meets World'' because it shows Selena's experience during her job, it expresses her love for her fans and that's why I love it. I also watched the music videos, I liked them even though I already saw them. ''Girl On Film'' was awesome, I loved her photoshoot for the album and all that pink. The behind the scenes of ''A Year Without Rain'' music video was amazing, and haha Selena was cold at the end :P.

Yeah, amazing album, hope to see more Selena in the future. Amazing album! :D

I like Selena Gomez (despite admittedly being far too old to be part of her target audience) and I think that she is a very talented young woman. I bought her first album when it was released last year and really loved it, I still listen to it all the time. So yesterday when the new album was released I had to get it too. Honestly though it was a bit of a disappointment. There are a couple songs I love, but overall it's just ok to me. It's much more pop/dance than I expected from Selena. I just thought she would have a bit more of a rock edge to her music... but, perhaps in the future. This is just generic, "been done a thousand times before" music. I expected something more original. I was also disappointed to see none of the songs were written by Selena. She wrote the song "I Won't Apologize" from her debut album and it is my favorite song from that album. It shows such great potential in her as a song writer. I wish she would have at least written one or two songs on the new album. But again, perhaps in the future. What I do like about the album, however, is that the rest of the band has a more vocal presence than they did in the first album. I'd like to see the guys more in the videos as well. My favorite songs from this album are the two singles released thus far, Round & Round and A Year Without Rain. The other track I like quite a bit is Live Like There's No Tomorrow. Ghost Of You isn't too bad. The rest are just "eh". The worst song from the album, in my opinion, is Summer's Not Hot.

I can turn this on and have the album playing just as "background noise", not really paying attention to it or truly listening to it. But it just is not an album that I'm going to listen to frequently, and with the exception of a couple songs most of them are not songs I'd sing along with or anything. It's just something so that there is some noise in the house to keep things from being too quiet. It's good upbeat music at least, even if the lyrics are not necessarily that great.

i got this as a gift for my friend and she loved it the songs are great and the price was low woo hoo i love this thanks

it was good cd but when the sun goes down was better then a year without rain but still a very good cd.

I bought it as a present for my little cousin and she plays it loud 24/7 so I imagine she loves it and I should give it 5 stars