{"id":222,"date":"2025-07-16T07:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T07:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T07:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T07:20:48","slug":"justin-bieber-swag-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Bieber: SWAG Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bieber dissociates into safe territory, alongside rappers Gunna<\/a>, Sexyy Red<\/a>, and Cash Cobain<\/a>, on a trio of totally adequate but otherwise impersonal, paint-by-numbers R&B love songs, the specter of an algorithmic Spotify playlist looms. Still, he is at his most emotionally absent, and the album at its most frustrating, when Druski interrupts on a couple of skits. The comedian, who in his own work ping-pongs between charming and daft, is ostensibly recruited to offer support, counsel, cultural context, and stealth promo for Black & Mild Cigars. That Druski is frequently credited with popularizing \u201cstanding on business\u201d does not, however, work as a legitimizing detail; instead, it introduces a cynicism that clashes with much of Bieber\u2019s ethos on SWAG and threatens to undermine the entire thing. In response to Druski\u2019s, frankly, stupid assessment that \u201cYour skin white, but your soul black, Justin, I promise you, man,\u201d Bieber is wise enough to offer a curt \u201cThank you,\u201d and nothing more. Unfortunately, he is not yet wise enough to have dispensed with the idea altogether.<\/p>\n

But Bieber\u2019s haecceity as a pop star, and SWAG\u2019s animating force, is that still-undeniable voice. He aerates midtempo opener \u201cAll I Can Take\u201d with percussive breaths that inevitably recall Michael Jackson, and winks, coy and pitched-up, on \u201cYukon,\u201d a highlight despite sounding like it could\u2019ve originated as a demo by Drake<\/a>, Frank Ocean<\/a>, Ed Sheeran<\/a>, or some twisted combination thereof. \u201cDadz Love\u201d is an enigma and, improbably, a rousing one: A breakbeat praise break, punctuated with affirmations from Lil B<\/a> and cherubic interjections from Bieber, who turns a declarative \u201cIt\u2019s dad\u2019s love\u201d into an existential question \u201cIs that love?\u201d and back again. These moments, SWAG\u2019s riskiest and most unexpected, are its most rewarding. The pair of acoustic sketches \u201cGlory Voice Memo\u201d and \u201cZuma House,\u201d disarmingly vulnerable in prayer and supplication, may seem the furthest afield. But for longtime Beliebers, both will echo grainy videos of a preteen Bieber busking on the steps of the Avon Theatre in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario: eyes to God, guitar in hand, desperation pouring out. There he is!<\/p>\n

After a good decade of holding a constant posture of apology for wrongs mostly self-inflicted and long ago eclipsed by those of peers blessed with far less scrutiny, Bieber himself remains an obstacle to new audiences who might otherwise find themselves compelled by this version of him. In an era that feels dominated by disaffected, hardhearted men, Bieber is overwhelmed with emotion and propelled by unselfconscious yearning. In a culture that feels utterly bereft of grace or generosity or even possibility, Bieber seems to glimpse some. SWAG feels as much about what he has let go as it is about what he is seeking to become: a pleasing lover, a cheerleading husband, a believer so desperate for heavenly forgiveness that he cedes the mic to Marvin Winans for the album\u2019s closing prayer-in-song. Who among us wouldn\u2019t love to go in peace?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Bieber dissociates into safe territory, alongside rappers Gunna, Sexyy Red, and Cash Cobain, on a trio of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[342,49,48,75,341,343],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}