Purpose Ain't Swaying Me
Justin Bieber, Justin Drew Bieber. The ‘Joffrey Baratheon’ of pop music delivered another album – Purpose. I guess this album could be seen as Justin’s way of apologising to the world for his questionable acts in the past (i.e. vandalising property in Brazil and Australia, drag racing in the streets of Miami, peeing in a mop bucket, saying he hoped Anne Frank would have been a Belieber, egging his neighbour’s house, being carried by his bodyguards along the Great Wall of China … the list goes on). A lot of people seem to be digging Purpose and might have even forgiven him as a result. I, however, am not part of the majority here.
Whenever I listen to Justin Bieber (post-‘Baby’ era), I get the feeling he’s trying to do his best Chris Brownimpression. Why would he want to be Chris Brown? Who would want to be Chris Brown? I’m pretty sure Chris Brown himself doesn’t want to be Chris Brown, what with the Rihanna domestic abuse incident of 2009 plaguing his entire career and virtually being blacklisted as a result. Getting back to Bieber though, I feel like he is quite whiny at times, particularly in songs like ‘Mark My Words’ and ‘No Sense’. There are also times when his vocals sound pretty monotonous (e.g. ‘What Do You Mean?’ and ‘Love Yourself’), and other times where he sounds pretty decent, such as in ‘The Feeling’ and ‘Children’. The harmonies also sound fairly dece whenever they pop up so we’re not forced to listen to Justin singing in a limited range in each track. Unfortunately, Big Sean and Travi$ Scott(who?) didn’t bring a lot to the table in their respective songs. In ‘No Pressure’, Big Sean sounded pretty monotonous to start off with and I was gradually getting into it as he built his vocals up … then his verse ended. In ‘No Sense’ I couldn’t pay attention to Travi$’s verse because it was hard to listen to them as there were other vocals drowning him out. I also found the pace of his vocal delivery pretty confusing. Halsey however, sounded great in ‘The Feeling’; it was nice to hear an actual girl instead of someone that used to sound pretty feminine.
As I was listening to Purpose, I felt like the lyrics started off sounding like an insincere apology. ‘I’ll Show You’ gave off a “feel sorry for me because I’m famous” vibe, ‘What Do You Mean?’ is just forcing your significant other to make a decision (very bad if your partner is female and it’s that time of the month for her), ‘Love Yourself’ antagonises the significant other and is a nice way of saying “go fuck yourself”, ‘Company’ is Justin saying he wants to have sex, ‘No Pressure’ is Justin and Big Sean saying “I want to be with you but there’s no pressure to choose to be with me” and ‘Sorry’ is Justin trying to apologise (maybe to Selena Gomez?) by whining. Saying that, there is a little variety in subject matter later in the album such as being unsure of your feelings for someone in ‘The Feeling’, life in general in ‘Life Is Worth Living’ and a charity single vibe in ‘Children’. In terms of lyrical content ‘Purpose’ was the only song which sounded like a sincere apology as it had some spoken word of Justin sort of taking responsibility for what he has done and saying “shit happens”.
Once again, Purpose is another album which doesn’t have a lot of guitar in it. ‘Love Yourself’ is the only song in the entire album that had guitar as the dominant track – but I guess that is a given when Ed Sheeran writes a song for you. The guitar in ‘No Pressure’ sounds rather interesting with the overall R&B/Hip-Hop style. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just interesting. It was also hard to distinguish the bass in Purpose. Like the majority of the albums I have reviewed, it was drowned out by all of the other elements of each track. I know it is there but it isn’t obvious that it’s there. ‘No Sense’ and ‘The Feeling’ has quite a lot of bass in there, almost as though it’s an imitation of The Weeknd or every rap artist ever whereas every other track is so processed that it’s drowned out.
The synth in Purpose was quite dominant throughout the album. More and more pop musicians are heading towards EDM territory with the amount of synth and other electronic elements being used in their songs. It’s as though the organic/classical instruments are becoming more and more like the gluten of the music industry – nobody wants it. The synth in Purpose wasn’t anything to truly be impressed by. Sure there were some catchy elements, but overall, it wasn’t something which made me say “THIS IS AMAZING!” The piano was … alright, I guess. There were two complete piano ballads in the album which was pretty cool considering the amount of EDM and R&B songs that were taking the majority of the album. However, the piano seemed to be pretty basic to me. It didn’t sound very complex and challenging to replicate (not that I play the piano), almost as though Justin was trying to keep the piano as basic as possible for live performances.
The percussion was, like every other instrumental element of Purpose, not that impressive. It was an imitation of every generic R&B, EDM, or hip-hop song throughout the album. It was the same basic tempo throughout the album. It was like someone wearing the same outfit but in a different colour every time. That’s all I really have to say about the percussion. I wasn’t impressed.
The songwriting for Purpose was ok I guess. Can’t really praise the songwriting when the songs themselves are pretty average. I guess I’ll give Bieber credit for at least contributing to the songwriting process in each track. I also feel pretty awkward saying these songs are average when there were at least three writers on every track but hey, but it’s my opinion. The production was alright too. Most elements were put together nicely, although there were some points where I questioned the necessity of some elements. There were a few tracks that had multiple layers of vocals with different lyrics. To me, it sounded like a total clusterfuck of Bieber vocals and it was pretty confusing to tell which layer was meant to be the lead. Perhaps some adjustments in the volume levels of each layer was needed but the producers couldn’t be bothered fixing it.
Overall, I am not sure why everyone is absolutely frothing over Justin Bieber’s Purpose. I don’t think this album really served it’s purpose (hehehe) of being Justin’s redemption from all of the douchey things he’s done over the years. It seems pretty average with very few redeeming qualities. I am not bagging this album because I don’t like Justin Bieber or because I prefer One Direction, I am bagging this album because I am simply unimpressed by it. I did enjoy a couple of the songs but it is not like I am going to buy or download the album and listen to it all the time. To sum this review up in three words: not impressed, next.
