Album Review: Justin Bieber - Believe

Posted by Anthony - 9th July 2012

Having burst onto the music scene in 2008 at the age of 14 and enjoying amazing global success, Justin Bieber now has the difficult task of growing up and entering the next phase of his career. His 3rd studio album Believe is clearly his adult calling card, and an effective one it is.

Whereas both My World and Under The Mistletoe were more mainstream pop albums, Believe is a move to current dance and R&B electro pop. Bieber has followed the fashion for employing a legion of writers and producers and the end result is an album with a bang-up-to-date sound but songs of variable strength. Guest artists are Ludacris, Big Saun, Drake and Nicki Minaj.

The track Boyfriend was released as the lead single and was a No. 1 hit. As Long As You Love Me featuring Big Sean is the second single. Another, and far better, obvious single is the album opener All Around The World featuring Ludacris. There are several other strong tracks and a few that seem to fall a bit flat e.g. One Love. It has to be said that Justin Bieber is not the most expressive singer and he needs to choose his material with care, avoid sounding bland and occasionally put a bit of personality into his vocals.

I must mention track 8, Die In Your Arms. This contains a sample of We Got A Good Thing Going by Michael Jackson. You would think it impossible to avoid writing a great tune with this as a base. However, with an incredible total of 11 writers on this song the outcome is distinctly underwhelming. As Justin Bieber is a co-writer on every song on the album he should exert better quality control.

The 20 or so producers have given Justin Bieber an accomplished album which will sell well and appeal to his existing fans and may even earn him some new ones. He has dealt with the transition from teen idol to young adult singer by turning to dance and R&B but keeping it light and pop-ish. Believe is a solid release and achieves its purpose.