Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me…Now was born out of a romantic comedy story and might even star Lopez herself. The pop-R&B opus, which is related to its spiritual prequel 2002’s This is Me…Then, was partly inspired by her budding relationship with Ben Affleck, but this new one is inspired by… well ,The same thing. Sort of.
To embody the spirit of the new album, Lopez revisited a series of letters that Afu wrote to her when they got together. He kept them after they split, which must have horrified ex-wife Jennifer Garner, but in hindsight, it’s kind of sweet. Affleck gifted her the notes in 2021 when they rekindled their romance.
This passion, history and romance tell us “this is who I am… now”. It’s a sweet story about long-lost lovers reunited, revealing that they never stop missing each other, even as their lives continue to evolve, change, and enrich. But the thing is, that’s often the funniest part of the album.
From a purely financial perspective, This Is Me…Now is inseparable from the movie it is. The project is self-funded and costs $20 million. In a Vanity Fair cover story interview, Lopez discussed the project and her massive financial investment, saying, “Everyone thought I was crazy… and by the way, I thought I was crazy, too.”
Of course, superstars like Lopez define things in terms of legacy, not dollars and cents. She added: “Now I feel like because Ben and I have reconnected with each other – and now that we’re married – I have something to offer. This is the defining piece that will close this chapter so I can move on to the next chapter of my life. Part of it.”
She seemed to be speaking on a grand scale about how important this project was to her, and how it reflected the romantic wilderness years she and Ben trudged through to find each other again. But if their love is so unique, so time-tested, so real, so triumphant, why does this album so often resort to formulaic sounds and lyrics?
As with any album that involves a lot of songwriters, A&R, and producers, there are a lot of good ideas here. Most of them sound like something anyone could sing, though. “To Be Yours” features a squeaky vocal sample and major piano chords. The cacophony of DJ scratches and MIDI plug-in synths transports the listener back to 2002, when Ben and Jenn first fell in love. This is a clever use of sound to represent the era, and the scene is set in the first verse.
“A long time ago, oh so far away, baby/Met this superstar and he changed my life/Don’t you remember you told me you loved me?/So promise me we won’t waste any more Time,” she sang. That’s fine, but Lopez can’t help but resort to cliches. The good intentions are gone by the time the chorus ends: “Like heaven multiplied a thousand times.” There has to be a better way to describe being in love–really, truly in love.
Lopez continually compares her love to the afterlife throughout “This is Me…Now.” When you start to look beyond the story of reconciliation and examine the actual ideas behind the entire project, the album doesn’t quite hold up. In “Mad in Love,” she sings: “Not this time, ’cause if heaven is a place, this is what it feels like/Back in my life, you opened the door/With you, it’s heaven, it’s worth the wait.” “Ben Affleck is not only like heaven, he is like heaven.
For all the time, money and effort J.Lo and her team put into the theatrical accompaniment to This is Me… now everyone involved should spend more time on the music that was meant to accompany the film.
Paradoxically, Lopez sounds her best when she recalls her lowest moments. Over melancholy plucked guitar notes, she sings about their breakup on “Broken Like Me.” It’s one of the record’s only truly powerful moments, as J.Lo grapples with the devastation of the relationship’s breakdown. “Broken like me, trying to believe/I can fix you, but you’re broken like me,” she sings.
Lopez pretty much explains how each of them worked for themselves, rather than just saying what they did in “Dear Ben, Pt.” II”, which does a great job building on the story of its 2002 predecessor. Even so, she refuses to provide context beyond vague claims of Ben’s greatness.
That’s me…now hearing Jennifer Lopez keep telling fans how great her love life is. She rarely bothers to explain why.
Release date: February 16, 2024
Record label: Nuyorican/BMG
Listen this is me…now below:
