Shawn Mendes - Wonder
Dec 4, 2020
40
It's not a very good sign when Justin Bieber is the only feature on your album..

Shawn Mendes' "Wonder" is a very disappointing middle of the road album. But what do we really expect? He came up as a very simple pop artist but whenever he released his single Wonder, my perspective of him completely changed. Everything was so good, so what happened?

Stylistically, this is much different for Shawn. Before he would stay to the usual pop formula, not really bringing much new to the table, but this time around he is doing a lot of different things to change it up. Even though I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, I have to give him props for changing it up. A lot of mainstream artists stick to their main thing a lot of the time to make money, and I felt Shawn Mendes was the type to do that, but hey, he proved me wrong.

Although the production actually pretty good there are a few things holding it back. Them being almost the same throughout. Sure you can say it's cohesive, but some of the tracks feel like they're a really long track when in reality it was like 2 different tracks. There's not a lot to remember about these tracks. Except the lead single 'Wonder', there's not much to this album. At least Wonder had some memorable moments like the beautiful harmonies in the background, the rest just sounds like a watered down version of all of them.

Oh god. The song-writing. Obviously there are just some things that can't drastically change within albums. And one of those things is his song-writing. A lot of it is just either really bad or just really simple. Songs like 'Higher' are so much harder to enjoy whenever I hear the lyrics. I really can't even tell if there is a step up between his last few projects, but I'll just say it is in hope that it is.

His strong-suit is obviously his vocals. They're great! I dare to say they're better than a lot of the mainstream pop artists out there right now! But he doesn't really use it to the best of his ability. It's honestly really sad as his vocals alone could've carried the album. Along with a lot of the great production, this could've been pretty good, but he's just not there yet.

I have been quite negative in this whole review, so I'm going to go to the great parts of this. As I said before, some of the production and his vocals are great on this album. Some of the songs here do show his talent, and those are the only tracks that standout. If he just gave himself a little bit longer, cut out filler, and made more songs like this, maybe had more variation, this album could've been great.

Shawn has potential. There's no doubt about it. Wonder shows a lot of it. Although very close to getting there, he still has more to learn to get to that point. I do respect the switch of music, but that in itself can't make your album great. He does seem like an amateur here, but I feel his next album could be great. Although disappointed, I am excited for a new album as I have a lot of hope in him.

Favorite Tracks: Wonder, Teach Me How To Love, Dream, Monster, 305
Least Favorite Track: Higher

62/100

5 Comments
3y
Surprisingly better then expected.
3y
Great review! Sorry that he had disappointed you on this album, hope he can please you with the next! :)
3y
@Scre4meh its definitely a step up, but still disappointing. I shouldn't be disappointed though, should've expected something like this honestly
3y
@Cry Hopefully! And thanks, I really do hope he makes something great with the potential he has
3y
@Matt Completely agree, hope he can continue improve and I feel like he can create something great too! :)
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