Album of The Week 12: Purpose - Justin Bieber
Buggati Biebz recently dropped his fourth studio album. This album certainly has been hyped in the leading weeks and months to its release. After a string of great features and singles including Where Are U Now with Jack U (Skrillex and Diplo), Sorry, and the best verse he’s ever dropped on Maria I’m Drunk in Travis Scott’s new album, Bieber releases his long awaited album. Does it live up to the hype though?
First notable thing about this album is that it’s co-produced by Skrillex as his credentials appear for about half the album. Apart from his electronic music, Skrillex is notably very talented in production for other artists, particularly in hip hop. Skrillex’s subtle electronic production enhances Bieber’s voice greatly. Bieber adjusts his voice to reflect the production as well giving a more breathy, atmospheric tone. This metallic fusion of RnB, electro sound with spacey voice samples sound great and this album excels in the production department. It helps bring out Bieber’s voice and that is the key component in a solo artist’s album.
Bieber’s personal life has not been exactly bright as of late. A giant egotistic, pop star who broke too many laws and acted as if he was better than everyone else is not the image most go for a few years into their career. It culminated in a comedy roast of Bieber and it was clear that apart from staunch fangirls, no one was on his side. “Purpose” more than anything, seems to serve as an apology for his recent transgressions. Much of the lyrical content focuses on him being regretful of past relationships both in his personal life and with his fans. In fact there’s an entire song simply called “Sorry”. Not that it’s a bad thing to be so focused on one subject. Especially since this is more or less a comeback album for Bieber. But it does get repetitive after a while. Some of the parts are interesting though like the mini monologue on “Purpose”. It does seem very reflective of his past actions.
The features are fairly good. Ed Sheeran, Big Sean, Travis Scott, Halsey, and Nas all appear on the album. There aren’t too many standouts in terms of features and it’s always the Bieber show. But I will say the Travis Scott verse was very well done. Ironic how two big assholes in the music industry came together to make two fantastic songs together. It’s enjoyable nonetheless. None of the features were awful but they didn’t excel either (thank God Big Sean wasn’t as corny as he usually is).
A lot of this album is very solid. It’s a great album that serves as a reminder of Bieber’s talent and influence in pop music today regardless of whether we like his real life persona or not. More than anything, it seems like he wants to focus on the music rather than his personal life which is something I can respect at least even if I don’t like him as a person much. Solid songs, stellar production, but often forgettable lyrical content all add up to a decent album that suffers from a lack of direction oftentimes. His intentions often get jumbled up because he keeps saying he’s sorry. There are a few bright spots but for the most part, it’s simply just good. Nothing extraordinary but nothing awful either. Give it a listen. You might like it, you might not, just don’t judge it based off his past transgressions.
Favorite Songs: Where Are U Now, No Sense, What Do You Mean?, We Are
Least Favorite Songs: Company, Children
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