Justin Bieber “Purpose” Review

I am glad to live in a world where it is not a taboo to like Justin Bieber. Seriously, there is nothing more satisfying than shouting out loud that you are partially infatuated with Justin Bieber and not having heads turn around in disgust. After Bieber went on his “apology tour” where he tried to recreate his image from out of control teen celebrity into the beloved teen heart throb, Justin released his recent album Purpose. After his last album Journals was a significant flop on the charts even after  the single “Confident” being a halfway hit. Journals marked Bieber shifting to a more hip-hop and r&b driven sound, which was most likely a miss to the fans because of the sudden change of genres and the features of certain rappers that his fan base may not be all to familiar with.Purpose made in its entirety is  cohesive blend between the two genres; therefore, it retains his original fan base and gains more on the way. The first single “What Do You Mean” that was released caught the attentions of many and also foreshadowed the overall sound of the entire album.

The album started off at a high note with the intro “Mark My Words” that was a stripped down vocal and subtle acapella ballad telling the tale of professing love to a significant other. It set off a certain expectation of musical creativeness that leaves you at the edge of your seat wanting to hear more. Next, “I’ll Show You” lives up to the expectation set in the album with an good build in the song and apologetic lyrics that exerts sympathy making you want to forgive him of all the reckless deeds he had done. After that, the album takes a terrible detour past the point of any later redemption. He follows on with his next two songs, which are exceptionally great as stand alone songs but with the terrible order it was placed and leaves an awkward feeling of being slowed down to “Love Yourself” in the middle of the album only to be picked up once again by “Company”. Whoever’s decision it was to place all his songs with features in the same sequence made a terrible choice, none of the three songs correlate at all and the only one that ironically made sense was “No Sense” with rapper Travis Scott.

Once again Bieber’s Purpose takes another acoustic break with “Life Is Worth Living” reinforcing the fact that the person who compiled and arranged the tracks did a poor job in pairing songs with each other. Later, the album picks up the tempo after “Where are U Now”  with “Children” which are both produced by Skrillex hence the upbeat signature “Skrillex sound”. Of all the slow ballads that are over-filled in this album, but “Purpose” and the outro “All In It” take the lead as the best and catchiest of them all. The last few songs were a blur of sameness that almost sounded like a one song put together because they lacked any distinction between the others and the lyrics was just the same story told in a different way.

Overall, Purpose started off with a bang but was just an incredibly lengthy compilation of songs that will never top the charts. A few gems such as “No Sense”, “Mark My Words”, and “We Are” featuring Nas, showed quality producing and exceptional song writing and can actually be distinguished from the rest of the monotonous blur. This was a musical flop, but will be a hit to his original fan base because it embodies his first and sophomore albums with just a tiny step above in the production.

Rating: 4/10