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AlbumREVIEWS: 'Purpose' by Justin Bieber
âI know you know that I made those mistakes maybe once or twice,â sings Justin âBy once or twice I mean maybe a couple of hundred timesâ
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'I know you know that I made those mistakes maybe once or twice,' sings Justin 'By once or twice I mean maybe a couple of hundred times'.Bieber in a song called 'Sorry' from his new record, Purpose.
Apologies make for good PR but don't let the apologies overshadow the music. There are actually some good songs on this record, something that Bieber was never famous for in his early years. After a multitude of shenanigans, Purpose is an apology letter that signals a change for Bieber. It's a good move for the young singer, regardless of whether it is a mere PR stunt or not.
One radical change is Bieber's refusal to succumb to the bubblegum pop that enabled his early success.
I don't think any of the songs in Purpose are catchy enough to stay in your head, with the possible exception of the Skrillex-helmed 'Where Are à Now' or the tropical-house nod of 'What Do You Mean'. Instead, Purpose jettisons the PG-13 soundscapes in pursuit of cohesiveness.
I say 'in pursuit' because I don't think Purpose gets it right every time. You get a balance between good and bad songs on this record. It's almost a 50/50 split. The good songs have a name attached to them and that name is Skrillex. The Skrillex songs neither choke you up nor exhaust you like the politically-conscious 'Children', the quiet 'I'll Show You' or the aforementioned 'Sorry'.
On most of these songs, Bieber gets it right as a vocalist. His lowered register anchors the songs well.
The numbers that don't really work render the record turgid and limp. Listen to the hip-hop track 'No Pressure', the tedious 'No Sense' and the generic 'The Feeling' and you'll get the feeling that Bieber ought to have used a little shock to get his message across. These songs are sequenced in a row and after the record's awesome beginning, they come across as a kind of sedative and the result is far from good.
Bieber desperately wants you to know that he's a good Christian. Depending on what you think of religion, this can either be satisfying or grating. Either way, Bieber's lyrics can't save the piano-driven Christian pop of 'Life Is Worth Living' or the last, spoken-word track, 'Purpose'.
I have to give it to Bieber though. Some of these songs are very boring but at least they are all sincere.
Purpose isn't bad. It's okay. The lyrics can be a bit insolent at times but they were made in a way that makes you feel that Purpose is a record Bieber that had to make.
What it lacks in authorship or identity (these songs could be sung by anyone), it makes up for in honesty. We've had Bieber the pop star, the troublemaker and the good Christian. By the end of Purpose, we get Bieber the person, trying to clean up his act.
