Wonder is the fourth studio album by Canadian Vine star turned singing sensation Shawn Mendes, and it’s a fucking train wreck. If there’s any evidence that it’s possible to give a star too much creative control, this would be it. Atrociously written, horrifically performed in parts, and all produced with the subtlety of a cannonball straight to the fucking eardrums, I would say Wonder is a once in a career disaster, but given Mendes already made the equally incompetent Illuminate back in 2016, I guess Shawn Mendes is just shit and I’m just late to catch up with everyone
Do I start with his horrendous and frequently unconvincing over singing? Maybe his God-awful writing that’s so convinced of its own romantic power but yet has nothing of the sort. Or perhaps I should start with the grating production that makes it seem as if Mendes just discovered the distortion plugin on his digital audio workstation and is using that as an excuse to lather it onto every melodic tone. I really am spoiled for choice.
The fact that Mendes can’t sell these songs to save his life is probably the most fundamental problem, so let’s start there. He’s at his best when he’s underplaying like on ’24 Hours’, but he’s at his worst on ‘Wonder’, where his aforementioned over singing is at its most spine-tingling. Then there’s ‘Teach Me How To Love You’: NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR A SEX SONG COMING FROM SHAWN FUCKING MENDES. I swear, didn’t he already embarrass himself enough with ‘Señorita’? Great, now I’ve got that Instagram video of Mendes and Cabello kissing each other like fish going through my head, and NOW I WANT TO PUKE.
I wish the production was any better, but it isn’t. That grinding distorted tone that turns up on ‘Higher’ and crushes the end of that song into sludge that turns up again in the overmixed bass line on ‘Piece Of You’ and always seems to be lingering somewhere in the background of most of these songs is a mood killer. I’d probably prefer those songs over the oversold melodrama of ‘Wonder’ or ‘Song For No One’, the blaring clattering cacophony that is ‘Call My Friends’ complete with that thunderous synth tone, or the basic beyond belief cookie-cutter duet with Justin Bieber, ‘Monster’.
But it was at that song during my first listen when I realised a whole new problem: The album is underwritten as fuck and might be one of the limpest pop albums in recent memory. It’s inconsistent too. On ‘24 Hours’ Mendes claims he’s not one to overthink his relationships, but him overthinking and over fantasising about his relationships was the very premise of the title track that came two songs before. I’ve already mentioned how thuddingly unconvincing ‘Teach Me How To Love You’ is, but the poundingly obnoxious love song like ‘Higher’ and ‘Always Been You’ are not far behind.
Then there’s ‘Song For No One’ which is a song about no one. A song about nothing. IT ACTIVELY GOES OUT OF ITS OWN FUCKING WAY TO REINFORCE ITS OWN FUCKING POINTLESSNESS WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS SHAWN WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????? The oversold sincerity at the song’s core when the instrumental shifts into those lumbering horns imply that Mendes actually believes what he’s selling, which just makes the whole album read a hell of a lot worse.
But here’s my overarching point: why do we need Shawn Mendes when we’ve got Niall Horan? Seriously. Listen to Niall’s latest album Heartbreak Weather and tell me that Wonder isn’t just a worse version of it. As for me, I’m sticking with the original article, and if this album made me wonder anything, it would be why on earth we gave Shawn Mendes a career in the first place.
1.5 / 5
Best Songs: '24 Hours'
Worst Songs: 'Call My Friends', 'Song For No One', 'Monster', 'Always Been You'
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