I'm Brian Hyatt. This is Rolling Stone Music Now. Today I have with me our old friends,

Bernie Spanos and Rob Sheffield. There's a lot of fun new pop to talk about and I thought we'd catch

up. So let's maybe start with the Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, collaborative album called I Said I Love You First.

I really enjoyed this album.

It's incredibly pleasant.

It's not wildly original.

I just love that Selena is so hyped up about Benny Blanco.

And it's this guy, not Justin Bieber, that has inspired her most libidness and sexual music. I just think

it's very charming and funny. Yeah, I think it's a great showcase for both of them. Obviously,

Benny is so known for his work with a million different artists, a really big hitmaker for

many decades now. And I think to have him kind of like step into the spotlight a little bit in that way

is pretty cool. A really fun sort of moment for Selena. Like it does feel like she is having a lot of fun

on this album. Like obviously been a big fan of her music career for a long time. But I feel like it's like a

really great sort of like mix of all the different things she's tried and tried out

and done and experimented with on this album and obviously with like the kind of sharp production

and writing of Benny kind of pushing that even further. I think it's interesting how many

tracks sound like other artists and in a way that I really enjoyed. There's a lot of fun spot

the influence on there. The second track, younger and hotter than me, particularly really sounds like Lana Del Rey to me, like a lot.

Waded outside your apartment, you used to come down for me.

I used to feel like an angel.

That's quite a lot of the album, though.

It's really like, I think it's, you know, I said I love you first to Lana.

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