Justin Bieber is a contradiction.
Like Chris Brown and any number of precocious pop idols before him, Bieber is a child existing in pop music. But pop is a genre of love, sex, addiction and sorrow—topics on which the 16-year-old Canadian cannot be an expert, because he just hasn’t been there yet.
This means the title of Bieber’s sophomore effort, My World 2.0, really is sophomoric. Hormones aren’t love, and backseat groping isn’t sex; that’s the maximum experience most of his listeners can claim. Yet here we are, a song called “Never Let You Go” with lyrics about “heaven,” “love too strong” and “finally.” The chorus plays like a stripped-down “Forever,” compensating with girlish Bieber multi-tracking for what it lacks in Polow da Don theatrics and Chris Brown’s charisma.
Brown wasn’t exactly card-carrying AARP either, but he pulled it off thanks to peerless production and a cross-the-aisle charm. Other than lead single “Baby”—blessed with a verse by Ludacris and a beat from The-Dream, Tricky Stewart and Christina Milian—and Spank Rock collaborator Benny Blanco’s “Eenie Meenie,” My World 2.0 sags under some absolutely dreadful beatmaking. Bieber simply doesn’t have the voice to buoy it up, and Auto-Tune is ubiquitous—albeit the pitch-correcting version rather than the T-Wayne robot howl. The vocals are best when they’re most organic, as on the Usher-aping “Stuck in the Moment.”
The National’s Matt Berninger once sang, “You know I’ve dreamed about you/for 29 years, before I saw you.” Bieber’s got half that, and he needs at least a few more birthdays before he might hope to carry a similar emotional weight. At this point, he should settle for anything genuine.
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