This was a bit of an interesting listen for me because Justin Bieber is hugely famous, a major cultural touchstone, and yet I really only have such an incredibly superficial awareness of his presence. I had a preexisting conception of him, I felt like I knew his vibe, and at the same time I knew absolutely nothing about him. I didn’t actually know what his vibe was, I just felt like I probably did. I mean, it’s Justin Bieber, right? Everyone kinda knows what his vibe is. Right?
As I started actually listening and getting to know the actual music he is actually known for, I found it wanting. It didn’t fit the impression of him that I’d walked in with, but that impression still held sway over me. Meaning, while I didn’t really care for his early music, I felt like I was only waiting to like him, waiting for him to get good, waiting for things to turn around. Because I knew him, right? I knew that I liked him, didn’t I? So all I had to do was wait for that to be confirmed. And hope, yes, but the feeling was more than just hope. I dunno. I just thought that that, frankly baseless, confidence I had in him was interesting. Especially considering how much of his fame—and so, by extension, my awareness of him—came from his youth, came from little Justin, came from the stuff that I so did not actually end up caring about.
Because I really did not care about his early stuff. There were parts of his earlier stuff, of My World and My World 2.0 and Mistletoe, that I didn’t mind, but mostly I really didn’t enjoy any of it much. I really don’t think it’s very good. It’s mostly bland, nothing in it particularly interested me.
I also admit that the content of the songs, coming from a kid so young, feels dissonant enough to be quite jarring, to make me a good bit uncomfortable. It’s not like he’s singing about graphic sex scenes as a teen, but he’s still engaging in the love song medium and the pop music tropes in a way that feels inauthentic and kind of… predatory? That’s a strong word, it’s the wrong word, but I don’t know how to describe the feeling. Not that he is being predatory, but that he is being preyed on, that industry people are taking advantage of him, puppeting him for the sake of the machine. It’s a bad feeling. There’s maybe one song where it feels, to me, more funny and silly than uncomfortable (“Bigger”), but for most of it it feels like someone is telling this child to play grown-up and I just want him to be able to be a kid, y’know? I’m sure that’s a lot of projection but that was my experience with it, it made for unfun listening.
That uncomfy feeling was mostly present in My World, but My World 2.0 and Mistletoe were still boring. I didn’t care about them. I like “Baby”, it’s a fun song. I’ve sung it at karaoke a million times. It is a cultural artifact and I enjoy it. I don’t care about any of the other songs in My World 2.0.I like the song, “Mistletoe”, it’s a fun song. I’ve heard it about a billion times, but I do like it. I don’t care for anything else on the Christmas album. I didn’t really care about Believe at all.
After those four albums, which I mostly didn’t like, were three albums I almost liked. I almost liked Journals, I was ready to like it. I think it finally starts to get away from the hyper-glossy production that I feel is present in Bieber’s first albums, which I think is definitely for the best. I thought I’d be able to get into it, but I ended up needing to listen to the album a third time after zoning out during the first two listens. I just couldn’t hold onto the songs, there wasn’t enough in them for me to latch onto, I felt. Purpose felt a lot like Journals. I liked it a little better, but it didn’t feel terribly different. Listening to Purpose, I remember feeling like Bieber was on the cusp of being something I really quite like. Changes felt much the same way, but even more so. I didn’t actually like Changes that much. I didn’t really care for any of the individual songs, but I felt like it was on the precipice of a qualitative change, that I would really jive with, that would feel like just such a major upgrade.
That qualitative change happened with Justice. Justice felt so much to me like what I’d been waiting for this whole time, the moment where Justin Bieber became good. There was potential before—I think Justin Bieber as a person, as Justin, always comes across in his music as pretty earnest and sincere, as musical and talented, and that’s certainly attractive—but the potential was never realized for me. It was never presented in a way that I could properly appreciate it. It was obscured by production choices I didn’t like, by what felt like industry practices poisoning the well. Justice isn’t my favorite album of all time or anything, but it is, like… good. It’s a good album, it’s super solid. I enjoyed it a lot.
That ended up being a little bit ironic because I listened to the album Justice and discovered I liked it more than any other Justin Bieber I’d listened to thus far the day after a very emotional day in which I had declared my contempt for justice as a concept entirely, a day in which I was literally brought to tears by my loathing for justice. That’s not related to the music at all but I mention it anyway because it really did happen with that perfect timing and I think that’s pretty funny. What can ya do. Sometimes that just do be how it be.
After Justice is SWAG and SWAG II, both of which I like quite a lot, both of which are super solid. I don’t know that I have much to say about them. I like them, good job, Justin. I don’t think they’re perfect, I don’t think they blow me away, but they are very good. They do a lot right, and they do it right over and over.
I don’t particularly want to hold teenager Justin over 30 year old Justin’s head forever, that seems like a dick move, let people grow up and all that. Still, it’s part of the conception I’ve just spent the last couple weeks developing, it’s part of the image in my mind, and I think it’s fair for me to make a record of that for myself. I imagine I’ll soften toward the parts of Justin Bieber I like more, the more current parts, the parts I’ll want to listen to more and give myself more exposure to, over time. I imagine that will lead me to feeling more and more kindly to him over time, so I expect this ranking to improve. “This ranking” being a B+. For now. I like where he’s ended up, musically, and I generally dig his vibe, but there’s still a lot of music attached to him that is fresh in my mind that I really don’t care about.
Justin Bieber complete, now listening to: LITE
tunafruitsandwitch 