Nobody would have expected, a 14 year old Canadian boy to go on and conquer the world, setting a worldwide trend by calling his fans ‘Beliebers’ and be called the 3rd most influential celebrity in the world in 2012. Not bad for a recently turned 18 Year old who’s set to release his 3rd studio album ‘Believe’ on Monday. The singer can count on a huge production team including ‘Cooler Than Me’ Mike Posner, Rodney Jerkins, Max Martins, Darkchild all responsible for a big album.
‘Believe’ has to be the most anticipated album of the year and has so far only seen one single release. The lead single, ‘Boyfriend’, a mid tempo track, saw the singer break from his usual teenage pop style to a more mature R&B sound, even though the lyrics of the track were criticised for being on the simple side. Bieber should actually receive a lot of credit for co-writing all the songs the songs. 18 year olds should get a break for that, and most importantly ‘Boyfriend’ did bring back the flashing memories that other Justin.
Opening the 13-track standard album, is his up tempo track ‘All Around The World’ featuring Ludacris in which Bieber mentions that everybody in the world deserves to be loved. It’s current, up tempo which has all the ingredients and influences Justin Timberlake and Usher master, nicely mixed. The track was released as a promo single alongside, ‘Die in Your Arms’ and ‘As Long As You Love Me ft Big Sean’ a few weeks ahead of the album’s release.
The album itself is very varied. The track ‘Catching Feelings’ sees Bieber taking on a more relaxed, laid back Enrique Iglesias track, which surprisingly suits him rather well. ‘Fall’ on the other hand is a strong but cheesy gospel inspired up tempo track which could easily function as a Eurovision Entry sent in by Ireland in the nineties. Yet wonderfully, it works and forms a nice breath of fresh air from the other slower tracks its surrounded by. The second part of the album doesn’t sound as coherent as the first part which is probably due to the fact that the more ballad type of tracks have all been put back to back. But there is no need to worry as ‘Thought of You’, a track produced by Diplo, brings the album back to life. The track itself, in pure Diplo style, seems to us a strong contender to make it as a single which will impress many non-Bieber fans 
because of its falsetto. It paves the perfect way for the anticipated up tempo collaboration ‘Beauty and a Beat’ with ‘ Madame du moment’ Nicki Minaj, before taking a step back in the mid tempo electro track ‘One Love’, completing the whole album with the stunning self-titled pop ballad ‘Believe’.
While we are overall very impressed by the album, and already tell us we might become Beliebers ourself there are a few minus points to address. The Collaborations are a central theme throughout the album, and while Justin is fully in control on tracks ft Ludacris and Big Sean, the central role on ‘Right Here’ is ultimately reserved for Drake and would have worked better if lead had been sung by Drake and featured Bieber in the guest role. The step to that full R&B sound seems to be just an inch too far for him. It also bring us to the point that while most of the tracks show a young pop star who’s grown and matured, there are a few tracks left standing where the boyish Justin peeps through. There is a solution however, The three additional tracks, on the deluxe edition are all matured Justin tracks and are definitely worth those few extra pounds. One of the songs, ‘Maria’ deals about the fatherhood scandal Bieber faced in the beginning of the year.
‘Believe’ truly is a masterpiece, and not only do we think the album will be a hot seller with the many beliebers, but that new mature R&B sound, fits Bieber very well, making him very much accessible to a new audience and ready to take on the steps to follow in the lime light of stars like Justin Timberlake and Usher.
‘Believe’ the new album by Justin Bieber is out on Monday 18 June.
Watch the video for ‘Boyfriend’ below.
