Demi Lovato TELL ME YOU LO(EX/LP

Just prior to the launch of the album cycle for Tell Me You Love Me, Demi Lovato sat for an interview with MTV News to discuss her sixth album and wound up comparing her new record to Christina Aguilera's 2002 Stripped. Lovato intended the juxtaposition to highlight the album's heavy modern R&B influence but the two records also share a candid carnality that sometimes feels a bit too blunt. It's not just that Lovato can't resist peppering her lyrics with profanity -- the album is littered with conjugations of "f***," arriving on both ballads and uptempo cuts -- but she dispenses with niceties throughout the record, imploring a mate they should "Ruin the Friendship" and slide into bed, or telling a new love that "lucky for you, I've got all these daddy issues." Subtle the words are not and while the music occasionally matches this braggadocio -- "Daddy Issues" blusters with its stuttering synth drops -- on the whole, Tell Me You Love Me is subtler musically. Lovato's assertions that