Music

“I could put you on the map,” Bieber promises — the kind of offer made by a man who really does need it bad, as he admits on the chorus. Horny Bieber is (almost) always welcome, but unless you’re really a fiend for cinnamon sugar, both the lyrics and production are a little lacking in the specifics that really make such a song sing.

“Love is over everything/ This is what I believe.” Justin has been pretty consistent on this front, particularly lately, but if you want more evidence to this effect, take “I Think You’re Special” — not the most melodically or lyrically dazzling song on Swag II, but one that feels significant as a personal statement of some sort for the Bieb.

Bieber gets lost in the Garden of Eden, retelling the foundational bible story in spoken-word from a first-person perspective over glowing synths and yearning backing vocals. It feels too personal and deeply felt to rank last on a list like this — and is undoubtedly worth at least one full listen — but your replay mileage certainly may vary on this one over the course of nearly eight minutes.

The most interlude-y track on Swag II, purposefully lo-fi (though with crystal-clear backing vocals) as Bieber sings about walking a thousand miles to get to you (take that Proclaimers!), with the only percussion being the slapped body of acoustic guitar. Very pretty, though it hardly feels essential, particularly nearly 20 tracks into the sequel set.

Bieber plays his own backing group on “All the Way,” echoing all his lyrics in a separate channel (“I can feel your eyes taking over me” (“Takin’ over me!“)) as he offers to take his love the distance. The multi-vocal tracking is by far the most interesting thing about the song, but it does make you wonder if some kind of “Hey Ya!” type music video treatment is in his future.

With power ballad synths and drums that wouldn’t feel out of place on The Weeknd’s After Hours, piano that verges on Bruce Hornsby-esque and a guest vocal from Eddie Benjamin, “Open Up Your Heart” should probably feel like the climax to Swag II. And maybe it would with a slightly stronger chorus sentiment than “Open up your heart/ Tell me what you’re really feeling.” Or maybe it would if Bieber had actually gotten Bruce Hornsby on the track.

Hurricane Chris on a Justin Bieber album?! Sure, why not — there’s not a ton else to the song, but Shreveport, Louisana’s finest sounds pretty good over the album’s trappiest production yet, and he closes it with a co-sign that would undoubtedly make 10-year-old Bieb’s heart squeal with glee: “Got some friends and they all love Justin Bieber.”

“In my head, it shoulda been easy/ How come it ain’t easy to let it go?” Slow, swiveling drums and tender guitar give extra weight to Bieber’s late-night-feeling queries on “Witchya.” The song lacks the knockout chorus to really tie it all together, but his multi-tracked vocals interplaying with one another in the outro makes it a captivating listen until the end.

A love song laced with falsetto and built around sweet lyrics like “If I know one thing that’s true/ You know exactly what to do and it’s amazing” — not spectacular, but effective. And another Spider-Man reference, because apparently that’s the thing for Canadian pop stars going R&B in 2025.

“I Do” trades the organic-sounding drums of the set’s first few tracks for skittering machine hits, paired with surprisingly Cocteau Twins-like synth atmospherics and bluesy guitar figures seemingly played form another room. Bieb proclaims on the chorus, “I mean it when I say that I do… You’ll always be the one that I choose” — a potential wedding first-dance song, if you and your spouse are really into 4AD.

Riding the kind of bass-led rhythm that Quincy Jones might’ve engineered for peak MJ — but kept spare, without all the horns and extra layers that Q would’ve traditionally piled on — “Don’t Wanna” is still a mean-enough groove that Bieb calls in reinforcements to help corral it in the form of British singer-songwriter Bakar. It’s a good match of voices and vibes, though you can’t help feeling there’s another level of release waiting for the song that it never quite gets to.

It’s clear at this point that Bieber and his alt-R&B dream team can crank out winners like this by the dozens at this point: sentimental, comforting, gently upbeat love songs built around simple sentiments like “I wasn’t lying when I said that I loved you/ And I don’t like it when I feel so far from you.” It might be a little hard to keep this one discrete from the other half-dozen similar gems on Swag I, but it’ll always feel damn good when it’s on.

You might expect something boisterous from that title, but the gentle piano twinkles that open “Oh Man” make it clear the titular exclamation is gonna be more awestruck than lusty. That part of the chorus ends up being a bit underwhelming, but the tick-tocking beat is one of the album’s most alluring, and the verses are also some of Bieb’s strongest (“When the telephone rings, I just feel the slightest sting/ Let it ring, let it ring, let me catch my….”)

“I’ll be your safe space/ Want to take the pain away,” Bieber promises over a cocoon of synths, sounding like he might actually be able to live up to his promises. Lil B, still around from Swag I, helps count down the song to lift off, as it does what other songs on the sequel album tease doing but never quite deliver on — it rockets into the club stratosphere — and it’s extremely cathartic, though a little unclear why this intimate song was the best choice for such a treatment.

“Ooh the first one’s free, the second’ll cost you” is a fantastic way to start off a love-as-drug (or love-as-sugary-confection) song — and the popping shuffle of “Eye Candy” keeps winning from there, with clever chorus lyrics like “You taste so sweet/ When you’re looking at me.” No more “spread your wings and open up” lyrics after this one though, please, Justin.

The skipping groove starts out like Bonnie Raitt’s “Nick of Time,” but turns even funkier, as Bieber feels the canned heat in his heels over twisting guitars and off-kilter synths: “I might just go give you my loving/ I might just give you a piece of my mind.” This one will absolutely kill live if Bieber ever takes his Swag show on the road.

“Let’s take a walk hallelujah/ Sun is out hallelujah/ I’m kissin’ you hallelujah/ Dream of you hallelujah.” So yes, it’s a pretty literal lyrical reflection of the “Everything Hallelujah” title — which could easily feel like an eye-roll, but actually feels quite heartfelt and powerful from Bieber over gently picked acoustic and angelic synths, without ever feeling the least bit schlocky. The gospel Justin Bieber album feels like a safe bet in the next decade.

Perhaps the most Journals-like track on Swag II, “Petting Zoo” sees Bieber enjoy further adventures in vocal layering over some desolate-sounding guitar. It’s an effective sound for a song about being in an argument you don’t much want to be in, and Bieber sells it with little moments like him slurring his defense about being drunk, or transforming his verse lyric from “I don’t wanna fight” to “I guess we’re fighting.” He’s more mature about it than he was 12 years ago, anyway.

Maybe the heaviest falsetto we’ve ever heard throughout a song from Bieber — rendering him almost unrecognizable — “When It’s Over” ends up being one of the album’s most striking cuts, making you feel his vocals in a totally new and unexpectedly moving way. Bieb really may have to start kicking up a percentage to How to Dress Well if there’s ever gonna be a Swag III, though.

The guitar riffs seem to get more and more distant as Swag II goes, and by the time of “Moving Fast,” it basically sounds like it’s stuck in the 1930s — perhaps somewhat ironic for its title. It’s a bit of a misdirect, though, as the song soon builds with a bass burble and a synth sigh, Bieber repeating “I roll the windows down and I’m slowing down for you” — and all of a sudden a pulsing-then-skittering beat crawls out from underneath the groove. It never quite explodes as it threatens to, but watching the light travel up the fuse is still transfixing.

Over an old-school boom-bap beat and warm guitar chops, Bieber sing-raps his way through references to “heat checking these chickens” and (again!) his now increasingly-played “Is it clocking to you?” meme. It works because he’s so firmly in lockstep with the groove, which evokes summer early-’90s nostalgia in the absolute best way.

Bieber’s ode to his son Jack is the first acoustic-based song on the set, with gorgeously stereo-separated guitars mic’d so that you can hear every little scrape across the strings. The song is similarly piercing in its lyrical detail: “I remember the moment at 2:00 in the morning I saw the reflection in you/ And you looked right through me, like you really knew me/ So much of her in you.” A little sappy but damn if it doesn’t hit.

A tough title to make a distinctive pop song out of, but the production of “Love Song” shimmers from the opening rustic, rumbling piano, which combines with some uncharacteristically hard-hitting drum songs for one of the punchiest sonic beds Bieber has worked with in this era. And he really earns it with the chorus: “I wanna write you a love song/ I wanna write you a good one you can’t stop singing to me.” This one just might do the trick.