When I heard about Selena’s announcement of a new album a few months back, I sort of got excited. I was hoping that she would create a new sound for herself, and grow away from the good-girl Disney Channel persona.

On June 3rd, Gomez released her second single from the album, “Slow Down” (single one being “Come and Get It”), and now I knew she was creating something new for herself. “Slow Down”, to me, is even catchier then the Eastern-style “Come and Get It”. It is just one of the songs that you roll the windows down on a nice day and bump.

Now, come mid-July, I had the chance to preview Selena’s new album “Stars Dance” in its entirety. It looks like my hopes came true, it sounds completely new. She sounds so much more mature in this new endeavor, and we at Roman’s Rap-Up love it. Here is a run down of some of the tracks on the album.

The first track on the album, “Birthday”, shows Gomez’s sassy side, with her singing “Tellem’ that it’s my birthday”. It actually sounds like Selena might have been having a legit party while recording the song. Definitely not my favorite song of the album, but still really good.

Title track “Stars Dance” has Selena singing about how she would “make the stars dance”, definitely referring about her unconditional love for somebody-perhaps it’s Bieber?

Selena Gomez at 103.3 Amp Radio's Birthday Bash 2013

This next one, “Like A Champion” is my favorite song off of the album, . It has a catchy rhythm, and almost sounds like Rihanna’s single “Man Down” (especially the chorus). Selena sounds like she has a great sense of pride in the song singing, “It's in the way you hold yourself/ You gotta know you're something else/ It's sure that you've never felt so sexy sexy”. That last part is even more interesting-never before has a Disney star said the word “Sexy” in a song. Even more proof she is growing away from Disney!

The next track, “Come and Get It”, is, well, different. Just from reading the title, you know it has something to do with sex. Thats what makes it interesting- Radio Disney invited her to perform this song at their Music Awards back in April! Did they even know what the song was about? Anyways, it sounds cool. The Indian/Bhangra instrumentals really work for the song.

“Forget Forever” is a really happy-sounding track. Yet, it is a song about breakups. Selena sings, “Our love was made to rule the world/ You came and broke the perfect girl”. It sounds like she is liberating herself from whatever man she is talking about. Especially in the end when she says “Forget you ever knew my name”.

“Save the Day” is a song about Gomez spending the night with a mystery man and never wanting it to be over. She talks about how this man keeps her going, singing “Put your lips on mine/ In the burning sunlight, I/ I cant believe that my body is still moving/ It makes me feel like we're doing something right.”

A few tracks later, “Love Will Remember”, talks about how love is permanent, and how you will never forget it. But, she sings it in such a nice, sweet way. The bridge of the song brings a bit of hope, with Selena singing “Let heaven in, Somewhere in forever/ We'll dance again”. It’s almost refreshing to hear this song after listening to the EDM heavy rest of the album.

The last song I want to talk about is “Nobody Does it Like You”, yet another song about sex. The entire song she is describing how much she loves this man, and what he “does”. The pop-star sings “You're my bad boy fairytale/ Since jamming with the dark side/ I wanna be your bad girl/ You bring out my wild side/ Your eyes your lips your touch/ His talk, sadistic rush, your sexy kinda swag/ The best I've ever had”. In this track, it’s quite obvious that Selena is breaking away from her old good-girl self.

The Verdict: To be honest, I was not disappointed with the album. I liked it more than any other album any Disney star has ever come out with, and I am proud of her that she is able to make music that she really wants. The thing I didn’t like about the album was that the majority of the songs sounds very similar. Not that it’s a horrible thing, I was just hoping for a little more diversity. However, overall it is pretty good, and I highly recommend you go buy yourself a copy next Tuesday, July 23rd when it is released to the public.

Roman's Rap-Up Rating: 7.5/10

Selena will be embarking on a world tour late summer/fall of this year to promote the album. Find out if she is coming to a city near you, and buy tickets here.

Yesterday, I had the chance to attend Boston radio station Amp Radio's Birthday Bash Concert. Last June, CBS Radio decided to make the switch from an "oldies" station to the new Amp Radio, featuring Top 40 music. In celebration of their one year birthday, they threw a completely free concert for listeners and fans which gathered a crowd of over 50,000 at Boston City Hall Plaza. The concert featured performances by Ariana Grande, Drop City Yacht Club, Timeflies, Sammy Adams, Selena Gomez, and Jason Derulo. I arrived at City Hall Plaza at around 11am (concert time was 2pm). At that time, there must have been about 10,000-20,000 people already, pressed up against the stage I barricade.

I walked around the area until around 1:45, when it was time to find a place to watch the show. Thankfully, I had VIP passes to the upfront party pit so I did not have to brave crowd.

Come showtime, Nickelodeon star Ariana Grande came on stage, and was greeted by thousands of screaming fans. She was wearing a white quinceañera-like dress, and sang only her hit song, "The Way" featuring rapper Mac Miller. Grande was also joined by a group of peppy backup dancers.

Next up was California trio Drop City Yacht Club. They sang a variety of songs that seemed like the majority of the crowd were familiar with. However, when they said their last song would be their biggest hit "Crickets", everyone started screaming and singing along. Definitely my favorite moment of their act.

Now it was time for Timeflies, a freestyle rap/pop group. Personally, I hadn't even heard of them before this event, but I thought they were an immense talent. Amp Radio had done a promo on twitter earlier in the day, where listeners tweeted them the topics that they wanted Timeflies to freestyle rap about. When they brought the topic on stage, it was incredible. They were able to freestyle right on the spot as if they had memorized lyrics. Just amazing!

Boston's home boy Sammy Adams was next on the lineup, and greeted the crowd with his hits "Blow Up", "Only One", and his newest single, "LA Story".

It was now Selena Gomez's time to perform. She came to the stage, and really owned it. The crowd went insane for her. She sang her hits "Love You Like A Love Song", and "Slow Down". But, it was not until her last song, "Come and Get It" that the crowd appeared to be reawakened. It was obvious that there were a large amount of people in the crowd who came to see Selena, based off of the volume of screams during her whole performance.

Last up, Jason Derulo. When he first came on, Amp must have turned the volume WAY up because it seemed to get a lot louder. Jason sang the majority of his hits like "Whatcha Say", "Other Side", and more. Without even looking at the stage, you could tell he took his shirt off due to all of the girls in the audience screaming at the top of their lungs.

Overall, it was a great concert, especially since it was free. I think Amp Radio worked well with local officials and security, as there were no large problems during the show. Everyone there was pleasant, and was there for the same reason I was; to watch the show. Music was great, and there was the station's DJs to entertain the crowd between acts.

So what didn't I like about it? Well, not a whole much. My biggest complaint is how the radio station handled the VIP tickets. Majority of VIP tickets and wristbands were won via call in contests, which were almost impossible to win. I understand that Amp wanted to make it a free show, whether you go VIP or not. But, maybe for next year, they could figure out a way to distribute them more fairly... perhaps a lottery system?

If Amp Radio Boston decides to make this an annual event, you can definitely expect us to be there!

Check out the photo's in the gallery below.