Holy Fvck


Holy Fvck is the eighth studio album by the American singer Demi Lovato, released on August 19, 2022, through Island Records. Primarily a hard rock and pop-punk record, Lovato conceived it as a return to the early rock-influenced sound from her first two studio albums, Don't Forget and Here We Go Again. The lyrical themes explore Lovato's sexual identity with religious undertones.
Most of the album was produced by Warren "Oak" Felder, Alex Niceforo, and Keith "Ten4" Sorrells, with additional production from Mitch Allan on three tracks. Yungblud, Royal & the Serpent, and Dead Sara appear as featured artists. The album's lead single, "Skin of My Teeth", was released on June 10, 2022. "Substance" and "29" followed as the second and third singles respectively; the latter became the album's only song to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. To promote Holy Fvck, Lovato embarked on the Holy Fvck Tour throughout North America and South America between August and November 2022. A promotional poster of the album and tour was banned in the United Kingdom by the Advertising Standards Authority for allegedly offending Christians.
Upon its release, Holy Fvck received positive reviews from music critics, appearing in year-end lists of the best music from 2022. Commercially, it peaked at number seven in the United States and the United Kingdom, while also reaching the top 20 in the Flanders region of Belgium, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain. Additionally, the album debuted atop the US Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. For Holy Fvck, Lovato received a nomination at the 34th GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Music Artist.

Background

first considered the kind of music she wished to make for her eighth studio album in 2021, following the release of Ain't It Tragic by the American rock band Dead Sara that year. She remarked that "it reignited this flame inside of me. I was like, 'I want to do rock music.' I saw them on tour and was super stoked about their music and was just like, 'That's what I want to go back to.' It felt right to me because I hadn't done it in a while. I wanted to return to my roots."
In January 2022, Lovato posted on Instagram that she held a "funeral" for her former pop music, with a picture of Lovato with label and management executives all wearing black and Lovato holding up two middle fingers. This was later clarified to be a music label meeting and the fact everyone was wearing black was simply a coincidence, but Lovato had felt it was symbolic of a change in direction that her music was taking. In the months following this event, Lovato enthusiastically shared various snippets of a more rock sound on her social media, with "crashing guitars, soaring vocals and cutting lyrics". In an interview with Rolling Stone in February 2022, Lovato confirmed a return to "emo-rock" that was "reminiscent of my first era". Lovato clarified, however, that her new studio album would differ from her debut album Don't Forget, in that it has a "heaviness" not lyrically, but "heaviness as in some of the sound that I haven't done before". Lovato also spoke to Inked, confirming her new album is "definitely not R&B or soulful, I would say it's more rock than anything" and that it was inspired by punk rock musicians that Lovato was currently listening to, such as Royal & the Serpent and Turnstile.
On Instagram stories in April 2022, the singer confirmed her upcoming album to reflect on "the artist's ups and downs during her personal journey". Lovato further explained, "getting emotional listening to my new album because I'm so proud of it", as well as labeling it her "absolute best yet and so representative of me, where I started and who I am today". At this point, a lead single was just "weeks away" per Lovato's communication with fans. Lovato finally confirmed the lead single would be titled "Skin of My Teeth" on May 23, 2022, indirectly through a short tweet that was responding to fan speculation. A few days later, Lovato officially announced the song's release and shared the cover art for the single. Lovato announced the album with its cover art and release date on June 6, 2022, with a link to her official store where fans could order physical copies of the record.
A press release indicated that the album would include sixteen tracks and included a statement from Lovato, who shared:

Composition

Music and lyrics

Holy Fvck is seen to be a sonic shift for Lovato, and has been described as a hard rock and pop punk album, featuring elements of heavy metal and various rock styles. Regarding her decision to revert to a rock-based sound, Lovato said "Back when I worked on Disney Channel, I knew I could go this hard, but it wasn't until recently that I felt like I could accomplish this sound." She further stated "I've had a lot of anger since coming out of treatment. These new songs are about taking the power back and owning my anger — something I pushed aside for years, because I thought it would make me less spiritual."
One lyrical theme of the album was of a religious undertone, which Lovato told British Vogue "just came out in the writing process. I wanted to take my power back. I grew up in the church as a Christian, and I had some anger towards it. Being queer, I definitely felt like I was misunderstood." Lovato also referred to Holy Fvck as her most authentic album to date, and that she felt proud of her previous work but "it didn't make me feel very happy. There was always this kind of emptiness that I felt, because I was trying to be someone that I wasn't. Now, I identify as non-binary, so when I say, 'Would you like me better if I was still her,' it's also a reference to people wanting me to stay who they wanted me to be in their eyes."

Songs

Holy Fvcks opening track "Freak", featuring British singer Yungblud, features "carnivalesque goth-rock guitars and bursts of industrial glam and hardcore, finds Lovato bewailing her status as a "piece of meat" carved up for entertainment" featuring the lyrics "came for the trauma, stayed for the drama". "Skin of My Teeth" was compared by NPR to the sound of "Celebrity Skin" by Hole with the vocal affectations of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga; and was praised by Loudwire for tackling addiction, while describing it as having "an immediate sense of urgency, opening with two snare hits and some chord strumming" after which Lovato begins to sing in a sardonic vocal tone.
Third track and second single "Substance" was described by Emily Zemler of Rolling Stone as a "raucous", "anthemic pop-punk" song, featuring Lovato singing loudly over guitars and drums inspired by the earlier years of punk music. The lyrics present in the song are a direct criticism of contemporary society, as well as evoking Lovato's previous drug-related problems and mental health problems. "Eat Me", featuring Royal & the Serpent, is the album's fourth track, and was compared by Beaumont to "Muse's more grinding synth-rock" and "swivels the target from herself to the industry that shackled her to their lucrative expectations. "Be more predictable, be less political, not too original, keep the tradition but stay individual," she groans, listing A&R notes before kicking back on a power punk chorus: "I know the girl that you adored, she's dead, it's time to fucking mourn… you'll have to eat me as I am." USA Today further compared "Eat Me" to the music of Nine Inch Nails, which sees Lovato and Royal & the Serpent "tiptoe in on a creeping goth vibe before the song explodes into a fireball of anger".
The fifth track is the album's title track, with Callie Ahlgrim of Insider Inc. calling it "a solid, throaty head-banger", with lyrics of "biblical imagery" which "alludes to sex so good that it feels sacred". Sixth track "29" was described by James Hall of The Daily Telegraph as "a soaring slab of radio-friendly rock", and features lyrics referring to age gaps in relationships, with media speculation that Lovato's ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama is the subject of the song, although Lovato did not directly confirm this. "Happy Ending" was described by Beaumont as "a rousing slab of grunge pop soul-searching" with Lovato confessing that "I miss my vices", "demons are calling and tearing me to shreds".
The eighth track "Heaven" is an "industrial goth-rock" song which features a "glam drumbeat" and was likened by Hall to "sound like a mash-up between the Sweet and Megadeth", In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Lovato states that the song's lyrics are "actually based on a Bible verse" further explaining "Matthew 5:30 says, 'If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it's better to lose one part of your body than your entire body to hell.' That was a Bible verse I heard since I was young — too young to know what masturbation was. And now, I have my own sex toys. Masturbation can be a form of self-care, it's not something to be ashamed of at all." "City of Angels" is Holy Fvcks ninth track, and was compared by Beaumont to the music of Avril Lavigne and Blink-182, with sexual innuendo-based lyrics featuring "Lovato imagin "christening" a wide array of Los Angeles landmarks from the Viper Room to Splash Mountain". Tenth track "Bones" was said by Hannah Mylrea of NME to be "a mosh-pit inducing mating call" which incorporates "throbbing Royal Blood riffs and Lovato's purred chorus that begins with the no-nonsense declaration "Let me jump your bones"".
"Come Together", the album's twelfth track, is a pop rock song which "excellently blends the singer's two most prominent sounds into an explosion of euphoric expression. A masterclass in using production to your advantage, the song leans back when it needs to in order to let a blast of joyful noise wash over you on the infectious chorus." "Dead Friends", the thirteenth track, is a "banging pop punk jam session, filled with fast guitars and plenty of double-time drum patterns"; and was said by Lovato in an interview with British Vogue to have originally been "a slower song, but I ended up turning it into a faster one. I wanted to pay homage to the friends that I missed, while keeping it upbeat and a feel-good homage to them." The fifteenth track "Feed" "starts as a piano ballad, cataloging "scars I've caused and scars I've earned," before it bursts into a raw celebration of self-actualization and determination. "I decide which one to feed" becomes a simple yet persuasive mantra in the midst of chaos." "4 Ever 4 Me" is Holy Fvcks sixteenth and final track, a love song which was likened by Olivia Horn of Pitchfork to the music of the Goo Goo Dolls, which "wraps Lovato in acoustic chords and bittersweet strings as they sing to a new partner about wanting to meet his mother".