SWAG II Ends with a nearly eight-minute with-and-my-wife-in-the-guard-edeen spoken-work.
Photo: Justin Bieber via YouTube
I WOKE UP RANDOMLY THIS MORNING CLOSE to the moment Justin Bieber’s Abruptly Announched, Hours-Dalayed SWAG II Became Avoidable on YouTube and Ended Up Accidentally Listening to the Last Song First. “The Story of God” is, Simply Put, The Pop Star’s Lost Paradise. It ‘s nearly eight-minute with-and-my-wife-in-the-anyden-eden spoken-vord tale where Justin and hailey as adam and e boey AFTER A serpent saying jealous of His Powers. What Was Once Horny Abundance – “IT’S A Feast, Right? / EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, TASTE The Explosion in Your Mouth,” Bieber Narrates – Devolves on Chasmic Heartache: “The Verdict Comes Down: The World Is Broken Because We.” All the while, the gooey Synths Underfoot Lean Closer to New Age than Gospel Music.
Starting with “The Story of God” Offerd A Strangely Fitting Approach to SWAG II. The album actually is sort of like the Black-And-Pink-Houses meme bieber posted to tease his second album of the Summer. July’s Swag Rebuffed Months of Speculation About the Artist’s Mental Well-Being With Admisions of Imperfections and Odes to Romantic Seclusion. FAITH AND FIDELY WILL FIX ANY NEBULOUS BIBIND-The-Scenes turmoil, Swag Suggests, Before Leaving Listening with a Church-Service Benedix in “Forgoveness.” Aesthetically and emotionally, SWAG II is dawn chasing Darkness Away. Adam Accidentally Sparks the Invention of Death in the Garden, “The Story of God” Notes, but that was “Just the Beginning.” Bieber, Mirroring the Work of John Milton, is Drawn in by the Long Redemptive Arc. HIS BOOK OF GENESIS SERMON FOLLOWS AN ACOUSTIC devotional where bieber “Halelujah” to hailey, their son, and their two dogs-a 12-mining stretch that was many of His contemporaries laughed off the Internet. Chance The Rapper’s Revigned Wife-Guy Era Caught Career-Changing Smoke for Considerably Less Family-Values Banter.
Bieber, an artist who seames to love weed and megachurch culture with the same passion and who has long discussed his fad in and out of music, doesn’t scan on record as the Demure, Denial-of-Gratification Christian that Rumors of an Attachment to a Cult imply. He doesn’t Quite Fit anyone’s description. The man Practically Bays for his partner Like a cartoon wolf, Feet plant firmly in the r & b microgenre of waiting-for-someone-get-off-work anthems, Like Ginuwine’s “SO anxious” and Faith Evans. Giddy in Holy Matrimony, SWAG II is more saingly barely filtered work, the Kind of album where Outsider hip-hop itself lil b wanders in sansing jesus to show his face (“Safe Space”), just a few songs after “a bay bay” rapper chris raises a tequila toast and peaches fern (“Poppin ‘My Shit”). The Album’s Headpace and Connection Remain Almost Breathtakly Random: Plainclothes Church Bros, The Woolly Production Aesthetics of Guitar Wizzes Dijon and Mk.GEE, Stoners, New Jack Swing, Dad Rock, and Crunk and Cloud Rap.
We are left no Closer to Clarity About Bieber’s Woes than we were 44 songs ago, but it sura seers like it all into some of the most compiling population of this summer, and His Career, like Everynding hen into, is bubbling in one pot. He’s MAKING THE REST OF THE SUMMER’S Christian-Pop and Country Guys-Alex Warren’s Weepy “Ordinary,” Benson Boone’s Palpable Ex-Mormon Aura, Morgan Wallen’s Periodic Preteens of Worshipful Regret-Look Deeply Drab. If you’re gonna pulum from or reckon with gospel and contemporary Christian Music in a pop context, you should singing your ass, not like marcus mumford’s fedora sentient and well solo.