I wish so many things for Justin Bieber. First and foremost, I wished that he would stop being a complete moron who pisses in mop buckets after saying Fuck Bill Clinton for basically no good reason. He just made terrible decision, after terrible decision and did absolutely way too much for me to even remotely have attempted to give anything adjacent to a fuck about him. I had absolutely no idea why he was trying so hard to prove that he wasn't a goodie goodie because I can almost but guarantee that no one was paying attention to his ridiculous white privilege fueled antics except the little white girls he built his fan base on.
Despite all of this, it's necessary to say that Bieber hadn't been pissing me off solely because he was acting like an idiot, but because of all the potential he possessed. People love to knock him down a couple of pegs because of his behavior, but what's inexcusable is saying that he does not have any talent. Anyone who listens to Bieber, whether you're a fan of his music or not, can't deny that he has pipes that were constructed by plumbers at Mt Olympus. He has an absolutely gorgeous singing voice that's highlighted when he does acoustic music, or acoustic covers of his songs. It wasn't until I heard him do an acoustic version of "Sorry" that I really got a chance to understand the talent he truly possesses. At the end of the song, Skrillex compliments his ability to do a run so effortlessly and Justin smiles and shows him several more runs. I got my life so hard I had to run around my house just to prove that I could do anything adjacent to a run he just gave us. At the VMAs, his performance of WDYM was pretty much stellar. His dance moves were reminiscent of a young Timberlake. The part of the performance I couldn't stand was when he started balling at the end. His crying gave me Chris Brown's redemption performance at the BET Awards when he started crying as well. He'd been off the music scene for a while and came but...I pretty much just laughed, but that was me.Justin Bieber no doubt has talent, he just really needs to make better decisions for himself and instead of just apologizing to the public, actually staying out of the spotlight and allowing his music to be the strongest representation of him because if he does, then he could really change the face of music.
I would really love for Bieber to tackle more soulful and R&B style music. By R&B, I don't mean hip hop. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to hear Justin singing "Drip drop" or anything even close to that. If Justin Bieber just took a minute to really embrace the soulful side and dropped a Boyz 2 Men style album, I can all but guarantee he'd have black America in a tizzy. Not because he's Justin Bieber, the cute little white boy with the guitar, but because he's the idiotic Justin Bieber who can no doubt sing his ass off. He'd basically be a white version of Chris Brown in 2013/2014. I stumbled across a performance of Bieber performing "I'll Make Love to You" at Jazz Night at the W Hotel in Los Angeles. I knew he could sing up to this point, but I had no idea he could absolutely SANG his ass off. He hit runs that made Ariana look like her vocal runs were just jogs. Clearly his voice was tired, you could hear him straining (I don't think the song did this do him because even in the simpler parts of the song at the beginning). As the song hit it's bridge, I felt goosebumps as I got up and just started seeing the light. This man genuinely thought he was Wanya Morris during One Sweet Day. It was just nice to see Justin in his element being consumed by the music as he ran around the stage adlibbing for dear life, after the musical break was when he got so in touch with it and continued adlibbing like his life was literally depending on this performance. It was absolutely amazing and it would have made an amazing single, I really wished his music would take this direction but it doesn't cater to the audience he's built for himself but one can only hope.
It's crazy to see how much his music has transformed since "Baby," the song that made him a household name. What Do You Mean actually has something adjacent to a message and, while the production isn't exactly my cup of tea, it's wonderfully produced to cater to the audience it's trying to reach itself to. The song simply begins with a keyboard and guitar and slowly transitions to a clearly Skrillex produced track. His vocals may not absolutely soar into the stratosphere, but his voice smoothly spreads onto the song like butter, His softer register shines on the song and his background vocals hit the higher notes I was hoping to hear. Overall it's a beautifully produce and wonderful song, but I was just looking for something more meaningful from this very promoted track. 7/10
Sorry is the meaningful track I was hoping for. It wasn't intimate or anything, but it was definitely meaningful. Listening to the lyrics of the song, I can't tell if the song was written for a past girlfriend (I'm looking at you, Selena) or if this was actually his apology to the audience. I understand that he says "missing more than just your body" but that could've just as very well been filled in just to rhyme. Clearly Justin isn't a stranger to taking from black culture, and Young Money (Lil Wayne, Drake & Nicki Minaj) have made careers off of randomly rhyming words together in their songs that have nothing to do with the meaning of the song, so it's possible that's what Bieber. I especially enjoyed the part where he says "and by once or twice I mean maybe a couple of hundred" because no matter if he was apologizing to us as an audience or Selena Gomez, he royally screwed up several hundred times to I cackled as he corrected himself as I thought that apologizing once or twice was not enough. I really love his voice on this track. I think it compliments his voice very well and I can hear a lot of emotion in the delivery of it in his voice. 8.5/10
I'll Show You is the meaningful intimate song I was looking for. Just from the first line "My life is a movie, and everyone's watching so let's get to the good part and pass all the nonsense." Immediately as he gets past this part, the production drops the beat. I think this is the first music I've heard from him that can be considered a pop/hip hop crossover, and I mean that in a good way. As Bieber tells the audience, "I gotta learn things, learn them the hard way. Gotta say what it feels like, no matter what they say" highlighting how hard it is "to say the write thing." The music video for this song also allows the song to be very intimate by just highlighting him and nature. It's impossible for him to be "perfect," which he says in the song" but all he can really do to make up for it is continue putting out music like this that really respects his audience. I love the fact that his music is not only evolving musically, but it's also evolving lyrically and he's maturing. 7.5/10
I have to be biased to this sing, simply because of the simplistic production on it. I complimented I'll Show You for being intimate, but this is the closest thing we've come to an acoustic song on his album so far. His voice is just album to be very raw, as it's just him and a guitar. First I have to get into how hilariously shady it is that "my mama don't like you, and she likes everyone." I can't tell who this song is about. It's mostly because I don't pay attention to Justin Bieber in the media, but hasn't he been quoted several times saying he's still in love with Selena Gomez? This song is just so reminiscent of him being so regretful of this past relationship, I just can't tell. Okay, blah blah, this song is meaningful and everything and gee willickers he's really sticking it to this girl by telling her to "go and love yourself!" But can we just talk about the musical break that brings the trumpet in? This song is a testament to how talented Bieber is. He's so in tune with the instrument, matching every not it does with pure ease. I'm just such a big fan of the tone of his voice. I think this is a very powerful representation of his album. 9.5/10
GRADE: A-
These three singles has been able to get us ready for the musical evolution of Justin Bieber so I can't wait to hear the rest of the album and review it!
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