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Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes, “Monster”

Hal: In the landscape of pop music, there are few releases less exciting than a new single from either Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes. Arguably the two biggest traditional male pop idols of our time (it is arguable that Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert and The Weeknd should be thrown into that category) it’s unfortunate that they so consistently embody the blandest and most personality deprived expectations of the figure.

Despite emerging from the 2000s as the world’s most hated pop star, Justin Bieber has clung onto relevance well into his manhood, also despite never having been good. Occasionally the production or song-writing given to him is good enough to carry like on “What Do You Mean”, “Sorry” or “Love Yourself” but he’s always been a detriment to any song associated with him. At best, his lack of presence will allow him to slip comfortably into another artist’s world, as on Travis Scott’s fantastic “Maria I’m Drunk” or Ariana Grande’s tolerable “Stuck With U”. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only person on No.6 Collaborations Project that Sheeran managed to mix well with was Bieber. He has so little personality that he can fit in anywhere without ever generating the sense that you’d miss him if he were gone.

I like Mendes a little more. Just a little. When he first arrived on the scene in 2015 he was immediately compared to Bieber, as another soft voiced, non-threatening (most of the time, let’s just ignore “Treat You Better”) Canadian teen idol. Unlike Bieber though, he has a couple of decent songs of his own, like “If I Can’t Have You” and “Senorita”, even if he was easily the firth strongest contributor to the latter, behind songwriter Charli XCX, vocal (as well as life) partner Camila Cabello and producers Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat. His voice is less forcedly breathy than Bieber’s and he’s more of a vocal non-entity than he is actively detrimental.

So, the prospect of two artists who have traditionally required another vocalist to accommodate their inabilities to articulate vocally teaming up together wasn’t a terribly promising prospect. This is especially true given the losing streak Bieber has been on, releasing some of the worst singles of his career throughout 2020, including “Yummy” which thanks to its laughably bad title, was a critical punching bag even before anyone heard it. That first impression still gave little impression of how bad the actual song was, and he doubled down on his game plan of making words which are not sexual and should never be used sexually, sexual, with “Holy”. Probably the worst thing about “Monster” is that Bieber namedrops some of these dud singles in his lyrics, saying he gets judged “like you’re the ‘Holy’ one”, but that he “came in with good ‘Intentions’”. Despite this though, “Monster” is probably the most convincing thing we’ve heard from either artist this year.

A key ingredient in the success of “Monster” is certainly producer Frank Dukes. A veteran of the last decade of pop and R&B, Dukes has produced excellent work with artists as diverse as Drake, Travis Scott, Kanye West, Post Malone and Camila Cabello, and who achieved possibly his peak producing the bulk of Lorde’s Melodrama album. He and his co-producers do an excellent work with “Monster”, opening with a sweet and seductive vocal melody and synth percussion that sounds like the formula for a classic Drake beat, and gradually layering in more and more musical elements, turning the track into ever more of a pop anthem. The instrumental is subtly embellished and transitions smoothly into the choruses, each one bigger than the last ending with a bluesy electric guitar solo, while hanging onto the track’s original, low-key twilight groove. The influence of the soft rock revivalism worked recently by Harry Styles is clear and Dukes ensures the track soars appropriately the way Styles’s recent stuff never quite has.

As good as the production is though, Bieber and Mendes also deliver their best vocally. How impassioned and convincing they both sound is likely to do with the song’s personal narrative. Written by the artists themselves, it’s a mournful if shallow dive into the anxieties and troubled spirit of the pop idol. The two have some solid chemistry as well, with Mendes being at the top of his game, constantly on guard against slipping up in public, while Bieber plays the old hand with the perspective of having come through public drama and made it out the other side. At least it’s a far better and more gracious comment on Bieber’s public drama than “Sorry” was.

Written by TV Obsessive

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