The Pop Corporation

The release of Justin Bieber’s ‘SWAG’ album was, for most, a surprise. Not least because of the absence of promotional materials released in the build-up to it, but in part, it was remarkable that he’d even been working on anything.

For those not terminally swirling around Bieber’s plughole for every morsel of information, he’d only been seen when he’d been looking drunk, high – unwell? – sparring with paps and offering the wildly clunky “is it not clocking to you that i’m standing on business?”, which felt like AAVE put into the blender, and served up wrong.

Thus underlining the slightly awkward relationship Justin has with Black America – he’s not a major problem, and he has legions of non-white fans for sure, but his full-body embrace of R&B, and his flirtation with trap culture is simply more noticeable than most.

And that’s because he’s an unusual superstar. Famous since he was a literal child, people muttering about him constantly, especially regarding the Diddy case where people wondered if Bieber was appearing in our eyeline looking troubled, because maybe something bad happened to him when he was a kid? When he grabbed the headlines, for too long, it wasn’t with any new music for us – or him – to focus on.

Then, just like that, he drops ‘SWAG’.

It turns out that, from this viewpoint at least, that Bieber was waiting to lose Scooter Braun from his professional life. Within 24 hours of the news breaking that they’d parted ways and $31.5 million later, he releases an album. It can’t be a coincidence.

And on the surface of things, musically speaking, it seems that like other big artists detangling themselves from professional affairs (Rihanna, notably restructured her business and released ‘ANTI’ and then became a billionaire with non-music pursuits), Bieber needed to break free and release the music he wanted to release. And that music, is vaguely grown-up R&B.

He’s a married man with a kid these days, and has a rake of tattoos, so he’s invariably thinking about the grown-up he is, rather than preserving some kind of legacy. In the past, he’s impressed with the underrated ‘Journals’, and of course, had a dancefloor smash of ‘Sorry’ and ‘What Do U Mean?’, but those were a decade ago now. More recently, we heard ‘Yummy’ which to all intents and purposes felt like a meme, and ‘Justice’ was well-received and showed a looser Justin, but we all know that a Braun-led Bieber and what Justin is listening to in the car, feel like very different things.

On ‘SWAG’, we’re looking at someone who has lost interest in being the clean-cut kid with an ear for a hook. He’s been looking increasingly despondent online, leading of course, to a host of speculation. One thing is true for the responsible person who digests pop-culture, is that we no longer like seeing a young celebrity crash and burn – if only someone would tell the press. That said, his ‘clocking to you’ comment once again, turned him into a meme.

At least now, we have the music to talk about, which is all Bieber surely wants. A gifted musician (let’s not forget he made his name as a child playing guitar and drums and singing like a little pop-angel, which propelled him into mega-stardom and talkshow appearances), 2025 seems like he’s been working on some passion projects, and now we get to share in them.

There’s high points on the record, especially the opener ‘All I Can Take’, which is a modern spin on ’80s soul, which kicks off with something of a plea: “these symptoms of my sensitivity; feels personal when no one’s listening. There’s things that I can’t change, Lord knows I’ve tried…“

One thing you have to credit Bieber with is that, in an era of pop stars that are very careful of their image, Justin isn’t that. He’s been irritable, apologetic, sometimes concerning, but his posture has been all him and done through an almost impossible lens of scrutiny. While a lot of hip hop and R&B is dominated by impossibly hard and emotionally unavailable characters, Bieber’s sensitivity has been ever-present. Now, independent, he’s allowed to freewheel a little more – perhaps speak his truth.

Backed by collaborators like Dijon, Carter Lang, Tobias Jesso Jr, Eddie Benjamin, and more, sonically speaking, he sounds freer than he’s done in a while. The beats swing, the touch-points are at a guess, SWV, New Jack Swing, more soul, D’Angelo and more, but lyrically, he’s frustrating – maybe we give him a pass, as this freedom is still new to him.

You can’t be mad at Justin teaming up with the likes of mk.gee who provides some worthy chug to ‘Daisies’, and it is always a joy to find Lil B on any record – but then, slopped into the record, you hear a skit Bieber and Druski talking where Justin flatly says “thank you” when told “your skin is white, but your soul black, Justin, I promise you, man.”

Jesus christ.

And sure, it’s okay to hear him say “people are always asking if I’m OK… it starts to make me feel like I’m the one with issues and everyone else is perfect,” but it sounds a little first draft, when you’d hope a passion project gave us a little more than surface level woes. If Justin Bieber’s intention was to show us that he’s a three-dimensional person, the lack of specifics or insight might leave us wanting.

That all said, perhaps it is unfair of us to demand more from him – maybe this is the exact bubble we view him in, that he’s trying to burst. Maybe we shouldn’t expect the world from a man who is still only 31 years old, to have all the answers when he’s been pretty strictly controlled for so much of his young life. If this is a first step in a new chapter of Bieber’s career, then maybe the next LP is the one to watch out for and give us a real sense of where he’s at as a person?

Either way, we would have liked a more concise album with a shorter running-time. It’s the best album he’s released since ‘Journals’ and there’s enough here to keep his own fans and R&B enthusiasts happy. In the past, he’s been peevishly dubbed Lightskin Justin, and if you’re a proponent of that, that’s the Justin you’re getting here.

There’s a Prince-ish swagger to ‘Go Baby’, and in the absence of Prince himself, it’s always fun to hear that production style wherever it comes from.

The fact that you can hear the echoes of Ralph Tresvant, and even New Edition, is a cool thing. It also nods to Bieber having tastes which a bit more grown ‘n’ sexy than he’s been afforded in the past. He’s still a bit sad and vulnerable to be that lyrically, but musically, it’s there.

In time, this could well be a cult favourite and we look forward to seeing what he does next. Just please don’t let it be a religious album.