Swag shocked the world with its excellence. It made you remember why Justin Bieber is a star in the first place. A surprising detour into alternative R&B, indebted to the sounds of rising stars Dijon and Mk.Gee, it was far from perfect, but enchanting. With Swag II, Bieber trades in all those ideas and raw edge for something pleasantly ignorable.
The cultural landscape is littered with superstars like Morgan Wallen and SZA putting out 40-track double albums, so it’s less an affront than a shame for Justin to put Swag on the rack and stretch it into a 44-track monstrosity. And yet Justin is someone I feel rather reluctant to tear down as a converted belieber. I had never really engaged with Justin’s music during its heyday, other than a muted awareness of his cultural presence. During exam season last semester, I thought to put on some of Journals and Believe; much-needed vapid entertainment, like caffeine to keep me awake.
Somewhere between tracks it hit me that much of the music was genuinely good. Everyone should go back and listen to Journals. Much of Swag II offers an interesting, textured backdrop for Bieber’s pleading croon but it never goes anywhere. Much of the instrumentation feels the same throughout. That’s not to say this album has no standouts. Opener ‘Speed Demon’ cuts through Justin’s silky voice with a jolting guitar loop that builds to an elastic chorus where he reheats “is it clocking to you?” for a second time across both albums. ‘Better Man’ and ‘I Do’, sound like re-workings of songs off Mk.Gee’s Two Star and the Dream Police, but with the kind of beaming confidence and energy only Justin has. ‘Love Song’ is the record’s peak and the only track with Mk.Gee credited on production, though much of the album sounds like it could’ve been made by him. With a gorgeous distorted piano and a thundering guitar, this song sounds triumphant and impossibly buoyant.
Still, Swag II is a refreshing step away from the ego of past records, as Bieber keeps things loose. For more casual Bieber fans, this is probably exactly what you’re in the market for, 60 minutes of pretty solid playlist fodder. ‘Everything Hallelujah’ is a beautiful closer — “Baby, we find love in these moments /We don’t even have to try” and shows what Justin has artistically gained from Dijon’s input. The stripped-back rawness from his own music, like the sound of someone singing to nobody at a get-together in the middle of summer, is something that clicks with Justin’s apathetic nonchalance.
Except it’s not the closer.
Almost in spite of all of the above, ‘Story of God’, the real closer, sticks out like a nail through a wrist. In case you were wondering what it would be like if Justin Bieber were the first man on Earth, he delivers an eight-minute retelling of the Book of Genesis from Adam’s perspective. “There was no fear here — fear hadn’t even been INVENTED yet!” But wait, there’s more: “It’s a feast, right? Everywhere you look, taste the explosion in your mouth!” Jokes aside, it’s at least pleasant and unobtrusive.
In the end, Swag II doesn’t ruin Bieber’s experiment so much as flatten it. It’s an under-edited try-on of a more alternative sound I hope he sticks to. Within these 43 tracks are 15 songs that could have made a genuinely strong album, not just a strong album by Justin’s standards. The first Swag felt like reinvention; this sequel mostly highlights his creative limitations. The possibility of a follow-up is always infinitely more enticing than what you end up getting.
“Justin Bieber in Rosemont, Illinois (2015)” by Lou Stejskal is licensed under CC BY 2.0.