Musicjustin Bieber: The boy who exaggerated on Swagbieber follows the surprisingly good swag with the depressively safe swag iipor

Sometimes, in life, we all exaggerate on the swag. Two months ago, Justin Bieber shocked the world with the excellent Swagyour first album in four years. It was the art return he needed – sweet validation after all his public collapses, problematic headlines, paparazzi fights and disasters on social networks. So there is something perfect in SWAG II “After surprising everyone before, he now comes back with the dull album everyone expected last time.” He could have called the Swag and is completely different and not very good, but still swag.

The first album was a deeply strange personal statement of an artist going through six different types of crises. But SWAG II It is all that the original was not: polished, anonymous, lazy and, depressively, safe. Of the 23 tracks, perhaps only five or six worthwhile, buried amid several weak songs that drag themselves for three minutes. You’ll know – maybe SWAG III be the album of remixes in which God joins him for a surprise duet in style Lord in “Story of God”(“ No, no, Justin – Your voice is the basis of everything! ”)

Bieber announced SWAG II Yesterday, promising that it would come out at midnight. But it ended up delaying four hours – which makes us imagine what last minute details he was still adjusting. Perhaps it has spent this time trying to find rhymes to “You look so good”? If so, the result was:“ if you gave me the Rights, you know i willd. ” (Probably not it.)

SWAG II It is the type of sequence that only serves to remember how good the first album was. Superficially, it seems to follow the same formula, with a loose groove between R&B and Indie Rock. He brings back the same collaborators – Carter Lang, Dijon, Mk.gee – And up to two of the same duet partners, Lil B and Eddie Benjamin. Among the guests are the Nigerian star of Afrobeats TEMSthe Indie composer Londrino Bakar and the Louisiana rapper of the 2000s Hurricane Chris. But it’s all a reduced version of what came before. There are no therapy sessions with Druski – You keep waiting for it to appear offering Justin One of your Black & Mild.

SWAG II deep in the 1990s R&B, but suffers from a fatal absence of melodies, leaving the voice of Bieber No room to shine. Producers do not deliver like last time, so everything sounds generic. When it gets bad, SWAG II falls into self -parody, as in “Need it”,“Speed ​​Demon”Or“I Think You’re Special”, In which TEMS It is completely wasted. As well as in the first album, Lil B appears at a positive moment, “Safe Space”. Only this time, Bieber does not give space for the BASED GOD Say almost nothing, besides some excited screams. The occasional crew of guitar strings tries to pass a false sense of folk authenticity, but in songs like “Mother in You”, Sounds as if the guitar were there just to stick as much intentional rangids as possible, which ends up sounding artificial.

Still, there are some decent songs that keep the adventurous spirit of the original. “Love Song”It is clearly the highlight, with a distorted piano loop – the only time when Mk.gee It really shines. Bieber He moves in the mood and sings: “I Wanna Write You a Love Song, Baby / I Wanna Write a Good One You Can’t Stop Singing To Me.” He rides by car with his low -beaten hood, while the wind messes up his beloved hair, and the serenade comes with poetic images such as: “An Aesthetic Happening on the Radio Station / Your Eyebrows Down In Contemplation.”

“Witchya”Flows on another soft groove, with a touch of Country Hippie guitar. In“Moving Fast”, Bieber Witness to his difficulties on a Blues base (“I was Speeding Towards The Fall, I Was 25”), until a disc battery crash is surprised. “Everything Hallelujah”Follows the opposite way-a minimalist gospel-soul, with Bieber celebrating your wife Haileyyour son Jackyour parents and even your dogs. (“Oscar, Piggy, Hallelujah!”)

“Ear Candy”Creatively mixes Britpop’s brightness of the 1990s with the 1980s rap Beatbox. But it also carries the most embarrassing moment of the album, when Bieber Sings: “You Could Spread Your Wings and Open Up”, a verse that seems to be directly from the School of Ornithological Metaphors of Rod Stewart.

The lowest point may be “Petting Zoo”, Built on a bland guitar loop, where Bieber It vents on marital conflicts without conveying anything from the real emotional burden he has already exposed publicly. Sounds like one of your most clumsy posts on social networks. “I told you that you fighting with a man!” Bieber Shoot to the lucky one. “I told you i don’t play that shit, no cap / bitch, i told you i ain’t doing tit-for-tat.” (It would be funny if the next verse rimped with “Mother’s Day Sucks Ass.”)

But then it comes “Story of God”Easily the most bizarre moment of a discography already full of bizarre. Bieber He heads in an eight -minute sermon on Adam and Eve’s biblical history in the Garden of Eden. He has always enjoyed ending his albums with somewhat exaggerated religious messages, but here goes from the line. About the sound of a church organ, Bieber Explains how amazing it was to live in Eden. “There was no fear here.” Fear hadn’t even been invented yet! ” And don’t stop there, “It’s a banquet, you know? Wherever you look, feel the explosion on your taste buds!”

Spoiler: There’s a snake, so things don’t end well for Adam and Eva. “We lose paradise,” he laments Bieber at the end. “We lost an unbreakable connection. We break the world.” It is chilling, so to speak. If you hear “Story of God”This weekend, it means that it has been too long at the party and the host is appealing to nuclear tactics to expel the guests from the house. But you know? You need to admire the boldness of the track. In an album where Bieber Play so in insurance, it is much better to see him launch a completely insane monstrosity on this scale. It would have been even cooler if he had called Druski to interpret the role of God.

But one thing is certain: you can’t accuse you of having done it in half, and there is real emotion in his voice-much more than one can say “Forgiveness”Or“Pray. ” Reinforcers, get ready to work on this.

SWAG II It does not spoil the impact of the original, which still sounds amazing. In fact, the failures here only serve to highlight everything that makes Swag so fresh and out of the curve. Does BIEber will turn this into a trilogy with Swag III: I’m Still Standing on Business, Yeah Yeah Yeah? Do not doubt. But, anyway, SWAG II Already sound like a footnote.

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