Review of: 'Shawn Mendes' by Shawn Mendes

Review of: 'Shawn Mendes' by Shawn Mendes

Not going to lie, I was really dreading this album. Shawn Mendes may have had a somewhat promising start to his career with his debut album 'Handwritten', but ever  since then, things have gone downhill hard. 'Treat You Better' made my list of the worst hit songs of 2016, and I stand by it. On top of that, 'Illuminate' was a pretty bad album. It lacked instrumental flavour, had numerous writing issues that lacked the appropriate framing to make them work. To restate what I said at the beginning of the review, I was dreading this. So, how was this?

Well, this was an interesting experience, and it for the reason you might think. The weird thing about 'Shawn Mendes' is that it's actually kind of close to being almost decent. Almost. Make no mistake, 'Shawn Mendes' is a pretty dry album, particularly instrumentally where, just like 'Illuminate' before it, it suffers from a lot of the same issues, but, this time around, it seems that Mendes and his co-writers seem to have gotten an idea of how to frame the relationships that were on display on 'Illuminate' and are on this album too. Either by simplifying the framing to the extreme, or by adding unique that flesh out these songs and make them work.

If anything, the most consistent issue with this album is the production. Muted melodies that are too simple to be memorable plague this album, nothing new really. The opening track 'In My Blood' initially seems to fall into this category, but the track actually ends up building some momentum. The biggest culprit is probably 'Like To Be You' with Mendes singing opposite Julia Michaels. Not only does Michaels sound awful on that track - there's no getting around that her whining mumbly vocal tone does not sound good - but the flavourless plucky instrumental does nothing all that interesting. 'Why', 'Falling All In You' and the weirdly cluttered 'Queen' fall into similar territory, but the stripped back guitar pickup and Mendes in his most confident vocal range plus gorgeous multi tracking on 'Because I Had You' does actually work for me.

Furthermore, while the combining of the slicker, funkier instruments mentation with the acoustic guitar (which ends up getting swallowed in the mix anyway) on 'Lost In Japan' is a tad clumsy, the song does have some charm to it that I can't deny. 'Particular Taste' tries to be the same, but the awkward squeaking melody on the hook blows any 'Youth' might be the best song on this album for having some unique, dark smoulder that Khalid's textured delivery complements exceptionally well. However much Mendes' slightly thinner delivery, but he still sounds really good and I still like the song.

And on that pleasant note, let's discuss the element of the album that I've seen most improvement in, the writing and framing. Needless to say, it's not always great, it is a Shawn Mendes album after all. For instance, in 'Like To Be You' the writing shows the couple as unwilling to fully communicate with each other or get to the bottom of what sparked they're argument, instead they'd just rather brush it off. 'In My Blood' is easily the worst written track on the album as Mendes reflects on the challenges of life (obviously he is not specific as to what the challenge is) and contemplates the possibility of 'giving up' but instead of engaging with his problems or acknowledging the consequences that could surface if he were to give up, he instead defaults to insisting that giving up is simply not 'in his blood' with the huge melodrama of the instrumentation sounding okay, but only in isolation.

I would argue that these moments are not are not representative of the whole album, though. This saves this album from being bad, and might show some hope and promise for Shawn Mendes down the road. 'Where are You In The Morning' may initially appear pretty unimpressive, and, really, it is, but the framing is quite interesting. Instead of anger that this girl just left after one night despite making it clear that she wanted to stay longer, it's more confused reflection. Mendes playing the bemused, exploited young man works very well. It comes up again on 'Perfectly Wrong', a significantly worse song where Mendes knows the relationship is dying, but can't end it, despite the girl saying that he hates him purely because of the sex he gets, yet the instrumentation frames Mendes as completely helpless. 'Because I Had You' is a much better song. It starts with the line 'I think it's time that I be honest / I should have told you not to go', which may imply that he is trying to win an ex back who left out of his own doing, but this is actually not the case. Instead, Mendes is, with the acknowledgement that it is going to be hard, is going to move on. He still has regrets, but he's trying hard to overcome them.

The album ends white a song that particularly caught my attention. The track is 'When You're Ready', the song where Mendes insists to the girl that if it doesn't work out for her after the breakup, he'll be there if she wants. 'Happier' by Ed Sheeran may be the easy comparison, but on that song, Sheeran insisted that he would be the 'knight in shining armour' ready to save this girl when it doesn't work out, Mendes is more reserved. He simply promises that he'll be around if it doesn't work out, even if he does flirt with melodrama on the line 'And if I have to I'll wait forever'.

But overall, I don't believe I'm saying this, but it's a 2.5 / 5. The fact that this album almost worked for me says a lot.

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

Best Songs: 'Youth', 'Because I Had You', 'Lost In Japan'

Worst Songs: 'In My Blood', 'Particular Taste'