Wonder

Well honestly, his last album... it sucked, people were too nice on that imo, it really sucked, and treat you better is top 10 worst hit songs of last decade and if I hear senorita one more god damn time istg I will throw that stupid radio out the window idk why my parents even got one lol. Anyways, the point is, Shawns music has not been something I've enjoyed, it's been something I actively disliked... so then I heard Wonder, I'm gonna be honest I didn't want to admit at first but it's one of my fav singles of 2020, it's just amazing, I love it. Then Monster came out and I got worried... and now the album is here.

How did it turn out? Pretty damn good, this album is not amazing but it exceeded anything I thought he was capable of doing. Before, finding a good song on a Shawn album was very rare, now it's finding a meh track that's rare because this album is crazy consistent. The intro track is pretty good, it opens up this more mature experienced era of his career pretty well, then we go into Wonder which I love then the first proper new song which is Higher, this song is great, the instrumental starts out kinda weird which moves into this kickdrum quick paced verse, the chorus of this song is great btw, the song is pretty bouncy, the synths on this are great.

24 Hours is a pretty beautiful ballad, I never really bought him as a ballad type artist but here it's actually pretty beautiful and well written, the chorus is just perfect.
Teach Me To Love is an absolute banger of a song, the more organic instrumentation really works with Shawn, it reminds me of mid 2000s maroon 5 in the best ways, the chorus is so catchy and memorable I had no idea he could even do those 2 things at once without being annoying, this song is pop perfection.

Things kinda slow down with Call My Friends and Dream, they aren't bad but the only 2 songs I don't really want to come back too.

Then we get Song For No One and oh boy this shit is great. The very quiet and minimal guitar is great on this song, he outgrew the 4 chord bs and is actually doing something more interesting with his guitar which is pretty nice, the lyrics on this song are genuine and nice, also the 2nd half of this song kinda has a Christmas vibe and idk whether that's just kinda cool or straight up awesome.

Monster actually grew on me quite a bit, its more low key feel is pretty nice, Justin Bieber actually sounds pretty great here, the lyrics are great. The chorus is great, it's basically this song about how everyone puts him on "a pedestal" and he's asking, if he falls down will he be "the monster"? It's quite nice tbh. 305 is pretty quick paced and nice, I like the guitar on this song. The mixing and production on this is pretty great, it's quite amazing actually. Everything just feels the way it should be on that front. The next song is a pretty short and quick ballad, doesn't overstay its welcome.
I like the clap along vibe of Piece Of You and the bass on it is great. Look Up At The Stars has a fucking guitar solo and a damn good one, it's one of those guitar solos that isn't like crazy impressive but fits the vibe of the song perfectly and just elevates everything. Btw I liked it a lot on first listen but man now it honestly sounds like the perfect anthem to the end of this year, I imagine this sounding pretty well like right at midnight on new years eve just blasting at max volume.

Can't Imagine is the closing track and honestly it's pretty cute and it does it's job well enough as a loser.
Overall Shawn Mendes showed that he is much more than "that guy with an acoustic" . It's not like an experimental pop album or anything but its a really fun album overall and I see myself returning to quite a lot of the tracks on it.

Fav tracks: Wonder, higher, teach me how to love, song for no one, monster, 305 and look up at the stars