Shawn Mendes has been famous since he was a tween. His 2015 album Handwritten made him the youngest artist since Justin Bieber to top the Billboard 200 album chart, and his top hits include songs like “Stitches” and “Treat You Better.” But since his initial run at pop stardom, he’s been pivoting his career toward a sound that’s more indie rock than teen pop. His latest album, his fifth,, titled “Shawn,” finds him working to create intimate folky songs with real heft in his best outing to date.
More introspective and mature than any of his previous work, “Shawn” sees Mendes struggling with his place in the world, just 26 but somehow a decade into his music career. Mendes reflects on the fallout of a breakup, the death of a childhood friend, and his ideas about himself. The album seems to take inspiration from Mendes’ friend and mentor John Mayer’s own folky Americana albums Born and Raised and Paradise Valley, with some dashes of the solo Paul McCartney album Ram. The results of Mendes’ efforts are an album that just works, it’s concise and honest.
On “Why Why Why,” Mendes seems to take some measure of joy in his own searching. “I don’t know why,” he repeats with increasingly triumphant confidence over a thumping drum and a catchy guitar riff. No longer churning out manufactured pop hits, the album “Shawn” proves the former tween star Shawn Mendes is now a grown up, and he’s fully in control of his music.
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