On It’s Not That Deep, Demi Lovato just wants to have fun again. After a few years leaning into the punk-rock edge of her 2022 album Holy Fvck and revisiting her old songs with a grittier twist on 2023’s Revamped, Lovato is back to the sound where she shines brightest. Teaming up with pop-production mastermind Zhone, she leans into playful synths, club-ready energy, and free-flowing sounds that live up to the album’s title nearly throughout.
The album’s release follows an impressive rollout that saw Demi flip her old “taking-things-too-seriously” energy on its head, leaning into the memes and moments that once dogged her. (Yes, she even went back to The Bigg Chill, the froyo shop she once tried to cancel.) It shifted the way people viewed what was coming, and the music mirrors that spirit of letting go, reminiscing on the past with a smile, and not taking herself too seriously in the present. That vibe runs through most of the record.
“How can a diamond like you exist/In a lowdown dirty place like this?” sings Lovato on “Frequency,” which transforms into a bouncy EDM-y song as she repeats “fuck up the vibe” over a driving beat. “Kiss” feels like a quintessential Zhone song, channeling the robotic elements he applied on Kesha’s “Boy Crazy” into something uniquely Lovato’s as an intro for an EDM classic that’s sure to be remixed at every gay club. Those two tracks line up closest with the lead singles “Fast” and “Here All Night,” both of which embody the carefree ethos of the album’s title.
Even then, there’s still room for some introspection on the record. Over a radio-ready beat, Lovato offers herself grace on “Sorry to Myself,” while owning her mistakes. “Sorry for the starving, sorry for the burnout, sorry for the one ex who always broke me down,” she sings to herself, referencing her struggles with an eating disorder and that past love who has inspired many of her heartbreak songs. (We won’t name names, but real ones know who.)
That love-longing Lovato we met on 2017’s Tell Me You Love Me? She’s found love, she’s more grounded, and she’s ready to have fun. On “Say It,” the TMYLM anxieties ballad-y anxieties creep in, before Lovato shoos them away: “I already know that you love me, but I like it when you say it.” But here, Lovato sings from hindsight and a completely different headspace. On that track and “Let You Go,” the production shines bright but never overtakes Lovato’s vocals. And on “Before I Knew You,” she looks back at a past love who liked to see her “small to sit on a shelf,” before assuring us she “only looks back sometimes.” (That old love seems to keep coming back in her lyrics, and it’s time to let it go.)
If there’s any trace of “Skyscraper”-style ballad energy here, it’s on the closer “Ghost,” where she sings to someone she hopes will follow her into the afterlife: “I hope you flicker the lights and send chills down my spine… I want to be haunted for life by your ghost.” Sweet as it is, the track feels a bit out of step with the rest of the record.
Production-wise, the album soars. For Zhone, still a relative newcomer, It’s Not That Deep feels like a victory lap. In just a few months, he’s stacked credits with Maude Latour’s Sugar Water, Kesha’s Period, Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun, and now Demi Lovato’s return to pop. Together, they underline a bigger truth: Zhone isn’t just contributing to pop today — he’s helping define it.
Considering that it’s been nearly a decade since her full embracing of PopVato, as Demi called it, the album feels like a homecoming to her electronic-pop roots. She’s not taking herself too seriously or digging too deeply into heavy subject matter this time around. Instead, she delivers a dance-driven album that skips the ultra-emotional ballads of her past to have some fun — with only a tad of regret.
