It’s a rare case to see an act revisit their recent release with an acoustic version of the songs. The talented young man with the biggest following in the world has had a tough time lately and this release takes the focus off his personal life a bit and puts the focus back on the music again. Sometimes the fans get so wrapped up in the person themselves, they seem to forget about the music they make.
For his millions of followers, Justin Bieber will have his equal detractors that cannot embrace his pop hook driven music or the teeny bopper love ins and scream-fests at his every move or whim. Personally, I fall into the category of not really being a fan of his previous music, while undeniably catchy and quite obvious why it has been successful with the teen market for so long, it never hit home with me. That was until now, with seven songs stripped back bare bones to acoustic guitar and/or piano, the songs on ‘Believe (acoustic)’ have taken a new dimension. Starting with the slow intimate picking of Boyfriend, the acoustic makes this song so much softer, gentler, passionate and intimate than before, despite the well known weak lyrics. As Long As You Love Me flows effortless from Bieber and once again seems to have transitioned nicely back to acoustic. Party anthem Beauty And The Beat is probably the odd duck in the album, it’s worked quite well, if feeling a little forced to get the energy of the track into an acoustic track.
She Don’t Like The Lights is nice but feels like it drags on a bit despite only being three and a half minutes long, where Take You is soft, before building into into a more pacey, frenetic finish. Piano led Be Alright is soft and Biebers vocals carry wonderfully with the keys. Translating nicely to an upbeat, and powerfully vocal led song, All Around The World is another highlight on the album. Three new tracks appear on the album Yellow Raincoat, I Would and Nothing Like Us. While Yellow Raincoat feels lazy and repetitive, I Would and Nothing Like Us show us that whether he’s producing a full blown dance anthem or a cut-back acoustic song, the boy has talent. Two quality new songs to end a pretty good acoustic album.
The removal of studio trickery and over production leaves a more accessible Bieber. The tracks are well chosen for the most part and work really well pared back to their basic elements and are tied together by Bieber’s rasping vocal. On top of that, he’s helped write and produce almost all of these songs, taking a heavy hand in the control and output of his own material, something which very few pop acts can say. It won’t make me want to buy his back catalogue, I stand by not being into that. However, and this is not easy to admit, but I think I just liked a Justin Bieber record…