Selena Gomez Performs “Love You Like A Love Song” On ‘Jay Leno’

How lucky Selena Gomez was that Simon Cowell was only at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote The X Factor USA, premiering Wednesday night, and not to critique her performance, because we’re not so sure she’d like what he’d have to say.

The teen pop princess practically whispered her way through her performance of her uber-catchy hit, “Love You Like A Love Song.” Any attempt to sing above a whisper sounded pained, and she stood in one spot the entire time, even though the song’s groovy synths beg to be danced to.

But enough of the negative. Let’s focus on the positive: the band rocked, and Selena, as always, looked gorgeous. There.

“Love You Like A Love Song” appears on Selena Gomez and The Scene‘s new album, When The Sun Goes Down, out right now.

Watch Selena’s performance on Leno below:

Selena Gomez & The Scene: When The Sun Goes Down

For the record, I dislike Selena Gomez. I dislike the way she sings, her performances, the fact that she is in a band, and I don’t understand the Justin Bieber thing.
Her latest LP, When The Sun Goes Down, was released on June 28th and features Gomez on the cover with a severe bob-haircut, dressed up like a songbird from the 1930’s. The artwork is tacky and manufactured, and it highlights the fact that Gomez is yet to really find any remote form of identity on the pop landscape. I mean, who does she think she is? She looks ridiculous.

The album was written by about 20 different people, including tracks from Britney Spears and Katy Perry; and its sad to see only 2 tracks feature Gomez with minor writing credits. We look to another Disney star, Miley Cyrus, who on her 2009 record, Can’t Be Tamed, recorded all her own songs as well as a solid cover of Poison’s hitEvery Rose Has Its Thorn. Similarly, Demi Lovato’s latest record Skyscraper has garnered strong critical acclaim. The result: Gomez’s album sales quiver by comparison.

Queue the second single from the record, Love You Like A Love Song, and finally she has our attention. I first heard it at a party a couple of weeks ago, when a friend’s boyfriend hijacked the music. F***ing douchebag. Weeks later, after revisiting the track, I find myself with it stuck on repeat; the simply resonant melody of the verses combined with a beautifully haunting pre-chorus builds up to a chorus that manages to stick. In terms of music, Gomez delivers a perfectly capable pop record, and her vocals are substantial as she laments ‘It feels like I’ve been rescued, I’ve been set free.’

The rest of the record doesn’t deserve much mention, and as much as I wish there was a redeeming piano ballad on the tail end of When The Sun Goes Down to satisfy my guilty, Adele-loving gay-boy music tastes, there is no such luck.

The short of it: I could learn to love Selena Gomez. That said, girl has got some serious work to do before anyone starts to take notice. The album gets 4/10.

Selena Gomez & The Scene – Love You Like A Love Song Lyrics

[Verse 1]
It’s been said and done
Every beautiful thought’s been already sung
And I guess right now here’s another one
So your melody will play on and on, with the best of them
You are beautiful, like a dream come alive, incredible
A centerfold miracle, lyrical
You’ve saved my life again
And I want you to know baby