When a 15-year-old Justin Bieber released Baby in 2010, he became a global superstar overnight. Now aged 31, he seems hellbent on distancing himself from the teeny bopper image that catapulted him to the top of the world half a lifetime ago and his new album ‘Swag’, released as a surprise, suffers as a result. It is little more than an identity crisis set to tape.
Gone are the chipmunk hooks and air of innocence, replaced by instrumentals that crib from the R&B heavyweights of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s alongside a lyric sheet that could not try harder to feel more mature. Imagine The Weeknd releasing a Boyz II Men covers record and you’re in the right ballpark.
All I Can Take is full of vocal runs and Michael Jackson-esque tics that allow Bieber to showcase his talents, before Daisies leans into a dirty guitar line to get the album off to a promising start, moving with the times and showing a sense of ambition.
Truth be told, through its first 12 tracks, ‘Swag’ is a very serviceable album. Things You Do is a low-key Ed Sheeran-esque ballad, Devotion is laid back and intimate, and Yukon takes pitch-shifted vocals and a sparse, shuffling bassline to deliver one of the album’s best entries.
But then the back half happens, and the wheels fall off. Sweet Spot is nauseating in its broad stroke approach to a sensual, sweaty serenade and its Sexyy Red feature is just clumsy. A trio of interludes featuring internet personality Druski are laughable for all the wrong reasons. Dadz Love is redundant and immediately forgettable; Zuma House is a half-finished scrap of an idea; and 405 is an over-engineered slog.
There is a self-awareness vacuum surrounding the decision to call the record’s penultimate song Too Long, while the closer Forgiveness isn’t even performed by Bieber. Too often lacking in direction, identity and personality, ‘Swag’ belongs on the heap marked ‘What are you trying to prove?’
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