Singer Justin Bieber released “Swag II” on Sept. 5, less than two months after releasing “Swag” on July 11. With both albums having a similar tone, “Swag II” definitely has that R&B feel, but lacks melodies, giving nothing for his voice.
Listening to this album while writing my college essay, I looked at the clock to see how much time passed. To my surprise, only five minutes did. Looking at the clock every five minutes, even though it felt like an hour, I wasn’t focused at all, and kept dozing off. I don’t think it was because of what work I was doing, but it was because of the type of music I was listening too.
Bieber has been a favorite singer of mine for as long as I can remember. At the age of eight, I had the biggest crush on him. His older songs like “Baby” and “As Long as You Love Me” made girls similar ages to me fall in love with him. As I grew up, I didn’t get this feeling from his new songs, especially from “Swag II.”
Starting with Bieber’s voice, it melts together in each song. Every pitch and tone sounds the same, and there is really no part in each song that I truly loved. Normally, I can pick parts out of certain songs and remember those lyrics, but for this album, I can’t seem to do that.
One song that did stick out to me from the rest is “Need It.” This song brings out a different sound in his voice, as well as a different beat. It’s a lot less mellow and more up beat. In this song, I can truly hear is voice, and it’s a lot more amplified. Another song that stuck out to me is “I Think You’re Special.” In this song, it features an artist, Tems. Five out of the 23 songs feature an artist. I think it’s good when artist do this because it gives variety to the album, which makes me like this song a lot more
In this album, you can tell that Bieber has matured and moved on from those pop songs that were popular for him when he was younger. A lot of these songs are dedicated to certain things like his wife, kid and himself. It’s cool to see how he’s changed his artistic style over the years. Some people love this change, while others miss the old Bieber.
To be honest, this album isn’t my favorite. It lacks a lot of things that I usually like in songs, and didn’t hold my attention. We will never get back the old 2010 Bieber songs, and he now has a wife and kid, so things are different. Overall I give this album a 2/5.
