Jennifer Lopez returns to her pop music throne with new album
NEW YORK
On “This Is Me....Now,” Jennifer Lopez's first solo album in a decade, the singer takes back her rightful place on the throne of pop music.
In 2002, Jennifer Lopez dropped “This Is Me… Then," her third studio album that married her glossy-eyed romanticism with R&B-pop rhythms. She also announced an engagement to the actor Ben Affleck, who she met while filming the movie “Gigli” in 2001. The pair broke up a few years later.
Fast forward 20 years and “Bennifer" — as they were dubbed by the '00s press — has returned, and so has her sublime pop. In 2022, they married, and now in 2024, the “This Is Me” series continues, articulating nostalgia and a loving feeling she knows best. It is the soundtrack to a new J.Lo Renaissance, one where she got her happy ending and has made the art to let listeners into her dreamy love story.
The opening track, “This Is Me… Now,” is quintessential J.Lo, with romantic instrumentation of flutes and harps. “Had a lot to learn, had a lot to grow, had to find my way,” sings Lopez on a track reminiscent of a track that might've been on her 2002 R&B dance-pop album — with a new, refined wisdom.
It proceeds “To Be Yours,” an energetic love song — sentimental but never saccharine — perfect for a serenade or the dance floor atop hip-hop beats.
The album was released on Feb. 16, the same day as a film by the same name: “This Is Me... Now: A Love Story."
“Can't Get Enough,” an early single that doubled as a tease for the movie, was released with a music video that depicts the singer getting married three times, as she did in real life.
At the end of the album is the R&B anthem “Greatest Love Story Never Told,” a bow on the album's full package, Lopez's breathy vocals sway above an acoustic guitar, piano and strings.
