Behind the scenes of his headline-inciting antics, Justin Bieber has been working hard on his seventh album: Swag. Not that anyone knew of course. Although the singer had previously hinted at some time in the studio, it wasn’t until yesterday that Justin started drip feeding his Instagram followers details of his album.
Featuring 20 tracks, the album seems to speak to the current speculation surrounding Justin and his wife of six years Hailey Bieber – who features prominently in the accompanying artwork for the album along with their 11-month-old son Jack.
For example, the track Standing on Business includes a sample of an incident in which Justin confronted a paparazzi photographer saying, ‘I’m a dad. I’m a husband. You’re not getting it. It’s not clocking to you. I’m standing on business.’ 'Standing on business' refers to the idea of standing up for yourself and taking care of your responsibilities.
Then we’ve got Go Baby which makes some very clear references to Hailey – the founder of make-up brand Rhode – with the opening lyrics, ‘That’s my baby/She’s iconic/iPhone case/Lip gloss on it’. The rest of the track seems to share Justin’s wishes that his wife blocks out the commentary surrounding their marriage and focuses on the good things that they’ve got going on and how they’ll always support each other. The following track Things You Do also seems to pay tribute to Hailey and her steadfast loyalty to Justin.
The song Walking Away also clearly references the pair’s relationship and the difficulties that they’ve been through with the lines ‘We better stop before we say something/We’ve been testing our patience’. But the track also emphasises the fact that Justin and Hailey can work together to get through anything, ‘Gave you a ring/Made you a promise’.
One track that might prove controversial is the song Soulful. Whilst the title appears to allude to Justin’s Christian faith - something very much at the heart of the final track Forgiveness - the song is in fact a short conversation between American comedian and actor Druski and Justin in which the former jokingly says to Justin, ‘Your skin white, but your soul black’.
Therapy Session is also a conversation between Druski and Justin, this time on the topic of Justin’s seemingly erratic social media use and the fact that everything that his does on Instagram seems to hold some meaning for his followers and critics. Druski says, ‘[You're] just being a human being’ to which Justin responds, ‘That’s been a tough thing for me recently. I’ve had to go through a lot of my struggles as a human, as all of us do, really publicly.’
As for where the title of the album Swag – which also forms the name of one of the tracks - comes from. OG fans of Justin Bieber may well remember his 2012 track Boyfriend (cue the high-pitched screams) which included the frankly iconic lyric, ‘Swag, swag, swag on you’. That’s obviously the first thing brought to mind by Justin’s choice of album title suggesting that the singer has been through a major period of reflection whilst making this album.
Indeed a press release for Swag states that the project is inspired by Justin’s, ‘devotion as a husband and father, this new era of music has fuelled a deeper perspective and more reflective sound, resulting in some of his most personal music yet.’
Across the album, Justin has collaborated with artists including Gunna, Druski, Dijon, Lil B, Sexyy Red, Cash Cobain and Eddie Benjamin as well as Marvin Winans who’s the only artist credited on the final track Forgiveness.
And so far, the response to the album has been positive with critics calling the introspective album ‘intensely personal’. Meanwhile fans have said things like, ‘it’s good man. rly good’ and, ‘it’s so good justin. i feel like millennials will really appreciate this one.’
Justin’s last album Justice released in 2021 received mixed reviews. Whilst many praised the album’s mature themes and improved vocals calling it ‘surprisingly compelling’, many found the use of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches ‘cringeworthy’ and criticised the lack of thematic cohesion between the songs.
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film meaning that you can count on Daisy for the latest (and best) recommendations