Justin Bieber is a 31 year old singer/songwriter from London, Ontario, Canada signing to Island Records during my time in middle school to put out My Worlds & Under the Mistletoe only to fulfill his obligations with them on Believe & Journals. He has since been on Def Jam Recordings for the past decade & Purposemarked a divisive debut for the label, although Changes & Justice was equally as bad as a great deal of his Island output. Coinciding with Clipse’s comeback Let God Sort ‘Em Out, his 7th album has arrived after receiving an 8 hour notice.
“All I Can Say” made for a decent synthpop intro singing about the inner turmoil in his life at the moment & trying to find some sort of solace whereas “Daisies” fuses bedroom pop & sophisti-pop courtesy of Mk.gee to count down the days he has left for him & his wife Hailey to reunite. The stripped-back “Yukon” tries to figure out what his soulmate would do if he didn’t love her including corny lines like “get a move on like U-Haul” until the atmospheric “Go Baby” sings about creating an emotional space without any sort of judgment.
Haile gets brought up again during “Things You Do” throwing out more weak bars such as “Sunday to Sunday, I’m here whеn you’re weak” leading into “Butterflies” responding to paparazzi gangin’ on him at Coachella this spring. “Way It Is” featuring Gunna was an underwhelming pop rap/synthpop crossover talking about wanting to settle down with their respective partners just before “First Place” sings about wanting to see his spouse in 1st place like “it’s a birthday”.
After the first of 3 questionable Druski skits, “Walking Away” breaks down a few different chapters in the story of his decade-long relationship with Haile while “Glory Voice” sings over a bare guitar for a minute to show off a religious side of himself. “Devotion” featuring Dijon co-produced by Daniel Caesar finds the 2 teaming up for a tribute to Justin’s son Jack stripping the sound back even further while “Dad’z Love” continues to expand on the themes of fatherhood.
“Sweet Spot” featuring Sexyy Red after another Druski skit gets together to bang out a decently sexual synthpop & pop rap duet while “405” after the final Druski skit makes a weak reference to Tom Holland’s portrayal of Spider-Man in The Walt Disney Company-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. The title track feels like a Cash Cobain song since Justin’s only handling the chorus & it does very little for me since I prefer Cash Cobain as a producer than a rapper.
The song “Zuma House” counts down towards the last 5 minutes of the LP singing over an acoustic guitar for a mere 83 seconds asking Hailey if she would catch him if he happened to fall backwards & “Too Long” ahead of the “Forgiveness” outro feels reminiscent to those luscious new wave pop songs you would’ve heard back in the 80s letting off some steam regarding the length of time he’s had away from Haile.
Didn’t even have a review for Swag in mind for the majority of the weekend but when Biebs joined Travis Scott & Jim Jones in dissing Clipse because they “make music for bitter grown men who collect KAWS dolls & still shop at KITH & Union”, it gave me some inspiration & I’ll argue that I liked Swag less than I did Jackboys II & At the Church Steps combined. Mainly because it feels like his attempt at Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers for casuals except it stylistically focuses around contemporary R&B, pop, pop soul, alternative R&B, bedroom pop, sophisti-pop, neo-psychedelia, synthpop, pop rap & gospel
Score: 2/5
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