Tell Me You Love Me is Demi Lovato's sixth studio album which was released on September 29, 2017 by Island Records, Hollywood Records and Safehouse Records.
Tracklisting
- Sorry Not Sorry
- Tell Me You Love Me
- Sexy Dirty Love
- You Don't Do It For Me Anymore
- Daddy Issues
- Ruin The Friendship
- Only Forever
- Lonely (featuring Lil Wayne)
- Cry Baby
- Games
- Concentrate
- Hitchhiker
Album Background
Chart Performance
"Tell Me You Love Me" debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 with 75,000 album-equivalent units (which consisted of 48,000 pure sales). It was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Critical Reception
"Tell Me You Love Me" received generally positive reviews from music critics.
On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72 based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
For Pitchfork, Jamieson Cox stated that Lovato "has finally settled into a consistently compelling space: flinty, flirty R&B that’s just as thrilling hushed as it is at full blast", and noticed the improvement over her previous works, saying: "It gives you enough space to see Demi as something other than a no-holds-barred belter. You want to get to know the Lovato behind Tell Me You Love Me, something you can’t definitively say about any of her other releases."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the album "runs the gamut from churchy soul to seductive slow-burners to showstopping ballads designed to showcase every single one of Lovato's diva moves", giving the album 3.5 out of 5 stars.
The Herald Sun rated the album 3.5 out of 4 stars, deeming it "impressive" and felt "Daddy Issues" was the best track.
Writing for Idolator, Mike Nied gave the record 4 stars out of 5 and stated that "Demi finally hits her stride" with the album. He added, "Instead of sprinkling one or two hits among a lot of filler, the hitmaker has finally recruited the right team and found her voice over sparkling mid-tempos and frenetic bangers.
The album has the distinction of being her most cohesive and is one of the strongest to drop in 2017" and compared it to Christina Aguilera's "Stripped."
In a positive review, Aidin Vaziri of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Lovato "feels jilted, and conjuring the battle cries of pop predecessors like Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson, she unleashes on exes and backstabbing friends with the kind of vocal firepower best appreciated from a safe distance".
Los Angeles Times writer Mikael Wood praised the album's tracks as "catchy and funny and sexy and daring", and wrote that the album "presents a singer burning with purpose".
For Entertainment Weekly's editor Tim Snatc, the album "suffers for some of its excessive vocal fireworks." Giving the album a B rating, he felt that the best parts of the album are "on the first half and showcase Lovato's swagger, especially the standout gospel-tinged title track."
Writing for Rolling Stone, Maura Johnston stated the album "gets bogged down" in chilled-out trap pop. She later commented slow-tempo tracks like "Concentrate" balanced the downtempo and the energetic tracks.