Justin Bieber has come a long way since he started on YouTube doing Usher covers. He has risen to the top only to fall to the bottom again, but here we are in 2015 and Justin’s put out a brand new album, Purpose. Now, I wouldn’t blame you if JB’s last album Journals made you swear to yourself that you would never listen to Justin Bieber ever again. That album was pretty bad. I personally am not the kid’s biggest fan but he’s managed to turn himself around and this new album is pretty good. Plus, you don’t have to spend any money on checking it out if you don’t want to. Just head over to Spotify and give it a listen, you may end up wanting to buy it for yourself.
I’m going to write down my thoughts on each track as I listen to them all for the first time so you can decided if it’s really worth a listen for yourself, but to each their own; we’ve all got different music tastes.
1. “Mark My Words”: Justin is killing it with the vocals on this track, honestly you’re probably going to want to listen to this one with your headphones in. It’s a nice (and really short) ballad and already a step up from anything he’s done in the past.
2. “I’ll Show You”: I’m taking a wild guess and saying that this is going to end up being the third single off the album (after “What Do You Mean” and “Sorry”), as it already has its own video that came out earlier this week and is a big hit with the fans. I like it because the whole message behind the song is that he’s human and he’s going to mess up sometimes but he’s just going to try doing things the way he wants. He also pretty much gets naked in the video, so there’s that.
3. “What Do You Mean”: You’re lying to yourself if you say you don’t love turning the radio up and dancing along to this one. I’ve even got into the habit of singing it whenever anyone says “what do you mean?” It was the perfect choice for the single and you can check out the neat music video here. There’s also a beautiful acoustic to this song on the deluxe version of the album.
4. “Sorry”: Honestly, all I have to say about this song is that it’s a complete jam. I love it. Also, the music video for this one is pretty cool. It involves a bunch of awesomely dressed girls dancing their hearts out. Check it out over here.
5. “Love Yourself”: This track is so unbelievably un-Bieber. The melody is great and pulls you in thinking that it’s going to be a cute love song. Surprise, it’s a break-up song about some crazy girl that loved herself more than him. Not a fan of the Biebs but still want to give him a shot? Try this one out, I’m not sure how anyone could dislike it.
6. “Company”: This song pretty much just goes out to all of Justin’s one-night-stands. It’s catchy and has a cool melody, though. So, at least there’s that to look forward to.
7. “No Pressure”: I can’t really get past the line, “Don’t nobody deserve myself.” Does that make any sense to anyone? No? Okay, at least I’m not completely alone. Overall, I’m not the biggest fan of the melodies going on in this one either. Big Sean has his go at a rap for this one…. and I wish he hadn’t because I think it got worse?
8. “No Sense”: Not sure what’s going on in this one, to be honest. The first half of this album was very pop-y sounding and nice and now I’m confused. He’s got a nice voice for most of this song but it’s just a weird sounding song. Travi$ Scott gives an… interesting rap towards the end, too. We’re starting to lean back towards the disaster that was Journals with these last two songs.
9. “The Feeling”: This track features the up and coming Halsey. Her vocals put a pretty cool twist on this one. I’m really not a Halsey fan but I do like this song and their voices mix really nicely. Also I’m pretty sure this would be amazing live. Let’s get on that, Biebs, okay?
10. “Life Is Worth Living”: Well, only seconds in and it’s already a major change for Justin. An actual piano lead in? Some deep and soulful vocals? This song is actually very beautiful and totally worth a listen. I’m pretty sure all the true beliebers out there will shed some tears while listening to this one.
11. “Where Are U Now”: We all know this one, we all love it, and we’ve all seen the wicked cool video. Technically, this is Skrillex and Diplo’s song and came out a while before Justin even released the fact that he was making a new album. I don’t care much though because it’s a great jam and totally worth having on the album.
12. “Children”: It’s kind of a creepy tune when you first give it a listen but then builds up and you’re ready to break out into a really ugly dance move. Well, your dancing may not be as ugly as mine. Anyway, a great club banger if I’ve ever heard one. Totally worth the listen!
13. “Purpose”: Album title tracks tend to be pretty freaking great. Did this one live up to it’s name? Hell, yeah. I don’t want to pick a favorite just yet because I kind of want the album to settle just a bit but this song… it’s amazing. Honestly, if you don’t want to have anything to do with Justin (well, why are you still reading this?) you should just listen to this song. It’s wonderful and I’m in love. His little talking bit at the end is also great and emotional and just beautiful. It’s worth buying the whole album just for this song.
BUT you don’t have to spend any money on listening to it, just head over to Spotify and decide for yourself if you’re a belieber or not. If you’d like to pick yourself up a copy head on over to iTunes, or any type of stores that sell CDs. Walmart also has a couple of bonus tracks on their Purpose CDs. Also, Justin just released tour dates and he is of course making a stop in this wonderful city of ours. You can check him out at TD Garden on May 10th of next year and I do believe tickets are on sale this week!