Justin Bieber, ‘Swag II’ and the curse of the ever-expanding album : NPR

In July, following a break-up along with his longtime supervisor Scooter Braun, promoting his catalog for over $200 million and spitting again at ogling paparazzi who could not appear to know that he was “standing on enterprise,” Justin Bieber completed one thing aside from persistently touchdown within the tabloids: he launched a shock album, Swag, which actually solely suits the mildew of a quintessential Bieber album in its minimalist, swaggy title.

Swag will not be the industrial, cookie-cutter pop-R&B that outlined Bieber’s previous couple of releases and produced songs just like the Grammy-nominated hit “Peaches.” As an alternative, Bieber enlisted a bunch of surprisingly leftfield writers and producers together with the singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. and proficient, uber-cool collaborators Dijon and Mk.gee to create a slippery and even experimental pop album. Specializing in fragmented snapshots from Bieber’s very publicly and personally litigated life as a comparatively new father and embattled spouse man, it performs with the hazy, ambient touchstones of ’80s R&B and rock whereas highlighting the Biebs’ still-impressive depth as a vocalist. Swag is imperfect — it is insular and repetitive, and undoubtedly inaccessible to anybody itching for the charming excessive of a music like “Sorry.” But it was a transparent, even dangerous assertion and far wanted revamp for an artist who has appeared to stumble by way of the previous couple of years of his profession.

However Bieber had extra enterprise to face on. Final week he launched a 23-track sequel to the album in Swag II, which mirrors the identical musical and emotional tenor of the primary album with out including rather more to the undertaking aside from sheer quantity. Swag, with its 21 songs and uncharacteristically arty manufacturing, was robust sufficient of an announcement to face by itself, not a undertaking that wanted rapid, prolonged extension. And whereas it is being marketed as its personal album, not essentially an extension to the unique undertaking, on streaming providers it seems bundled proper earlier than Swag, seamlessly feeding listeners the primary album to spice up the OG undertaking’s streams proper after. Now, followers of Bieber’s Swag period have 44 songs in whole to take pleasure in, as a result of extra music is best, proper?

That appears to be the reigning strategy for therefore many artists over the past 5 years, as musicians search to increase the lifetime of their albums (or more and more rarefied second within the business’s monocultural highlight) so far as they probably can. Nowadays it is common for an artist to launch a brand new album only a yr and even much less after their final one, as each Tyler, the Creator and Sabrina Carpenter did with DON’T TAP THE GLASS and Man’s Greatest Buddy, regardless of placing out the well-received CHROMAKOPIA and Quick n’ Candy in 2024. FKA twigs, who launched her glorious club-inspired album EUSEXUA in January, additionally introduced a follow-up titled Eusexua Afterglow, which she clarified is a wholly new album. Taylor Swift, whose incessant, ever-visible productiveness makes me suppose she’s aware of cloning know-how we peasants do not but possess, not solely put out the huge The Tortured Poets Division within the midst of her Eras Tour final yr, however is now placing out a brand new album, The Lifetime of a Showgirl, in just some months.

After which there are the standalone albums that simply appear to continue to grow, by way of extensions, bonus-track crammed deluxe editions or remix variations, the that means of every format blurring collectively over time. This yr Teddy Swims launched I’ve Tried The whole lot however Remedy (Half 2), billed because the “second half” of 2023’s I’ve Tried The whole lot however Remedy (Half 1), although every is basically its personal album. In 2023, Taylor Swift doubled the size of the 16-track The Tortured Poets Division when she casually dropped 15 extra tracks simply two hours later. The “deluxe album,” which usually provides just a few further bonus tracks to an preliminary launch, is now almost a requirement for any main pop album launched within the 2020s. And these deluxe editions can drop just a few months to years after the unique album drops, because it did with SZA’s album SOS, which got here out in 2022 and solely noticed its deluxe version, SOS Deluxe: LANA, which lastly materialized this yr after extremely publicized delays.

The album as a format has arguably by no means been extra acceptably mutable and malleable than it’s proper now. It is humorous to suppose that just about a decade in the past, music critics (myself included) and followers have been wringing their palms over Kanye West tinkering with The Lifetime of Pablo after it was despatched to streaming providers and what it meant for the album as a contained, immovable creative assertion. The convenience and adaptability of streaming, the place artists do not have to fret about fossilizing a launch in any set type or size to suit the bodily limits of a vinyl file or CD, free to drop new music instantaneously, has allowed the album to float into playlist territory, the place songs may be added and even tweaked to befit a unique time. American pop artists have additionally adopted the discharge methods of worldwide markets like Ok-pop, the place it is common for teams to launch a number of variations of a single undertaking or repackage it in several methods to spice up gross sales and feed spend-happy fanbases. When you need to launch a whopping 37-song album, you are able to do that in 2025, as Morgan Wallen did with I am the Drawback, indisputably essentially the most commercially profitable album of the yr to this point. Or, launch a number of CD and digital variations of your album, like Playboi Carti did for this yr’s MUSIC.

However the prolonged universe of the typical album as of late, with its rising tracklists and deluxe editions and shock sequels, does not really feel like artists are pushing the inventive limits of their work and extra like craven enterprise ways. There’s a industrial incentive to creating your album so long as potential, in as many permutations. Longer albums typically translate to extra streams, and extra streams imply extra album “gross sales” given the way in which album efficiency is calculated within the streaming period, which in flip aids higher placement on the pop charts, a nonetheless extremely coveted endorsement for artists. As my colleague Stephen Thompson tracks in his weekly evaluation of the Billboard charts, a well-timed deluxe version may also catapult an album that is fallen off the higher echelon of the chart (or off it completely) by way of new streams and gross sales, momentarily boosting an album that has fallen by way of the cracks in a music economic system the place it appears like the identical handful of pop artists monopolize consideration. Like an influencer who has to submit a number of instances a day to extend their attain and follower counts, musicians should churn out music to do the identical.

I do know why artists stretch out the lifespan of their albums like putty for max influence. And I sympathize, inside limits, with any artist who should launch work in our present, disordered consideration economic system and abundance of recent music. And but I would like all of them to simply let their albums breathe — to outline a single undertaking and let it exist for a minute by itself phrases with out fixed add-ons or further albums rolling down the pipeline in a month or two. I am not a lot eager about artists committing to an old-fashioned, 12 to 13 observe, give-or-take 45-minute album, although when it occurs, because it did with Lorde’s svelte Virgin this yr, which has but to provide any bonus tracks, I am pleasantly shocked. I’m looking for a broader push for artists to self-edit extra intentionally, and to show away from launch methods that lend their work an aura of tension about capturing adequate consideration.

A part of the allure of Bieber’s Swag was that you can hear the artist leaning out, although not as a lot as he might have, from his previous instincts as a pop artist in simply the proper measure, for the entire album. However on Swag II I hear a muddying of that intuition and at instances a backtracking of that preliminary experimentation on the overly schmaltzy, upbeat songs like “I Assume You are Particular” and “Eye Sweet.” Largely the songs circle the identical Dijon and Mk.gee-executed instrumentation and Bieber’s concepts (he’ll at all times be there for his spouse, who he loves very a lot, although marriage is not at all times straightforward) so equally to the primary album that every one 44 tracks start to bleed collectively in a blur that in the end cheapens every music. The added songs are worse materials than what Bieber gave us on Swag, so why give them to us?

Swag II made me query if Bieber was underwhelmed by the album’s preliminary industrial efficiency (the album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard chart, however has fallen steadily since) and thought extra music may push the undertaking again into the highlight. If that was the case, he bought what he needed — this week Swag surged again within the Billboard 200’s high 5, leaping from spot 17 to 4, partially due to how Swag II‘s streams have been mixed with Swag‘s for chart functions. An extra of recent music by your favourite artist could be thrilling, nevertheless it makes me skeptical of their imaginative and prescient for the album within the first place, particularly when in depth releases and shock double albums appear tuned to industrial pursuits. The variety of instances I’ve heard an album within the final 5 years and thought that there was a greater model of it hiding in its 20-something or extra tracklist is excessive.

The phrase “period” will get thrown round so much as of late with reference to musicians, that means the overall transformation of sound and magnificence that accompanies a brand new launch for artists dedicated to fixed reinvention. However to ensure that an period to exist, you have to transfer on. When Taylor Swift introduced her forthcoming album The Lifetime of a Showgirl, she made it clear it could simply be 13 tracks — no deluxe songs or secret tracks coming. She’s an artist with the privilege of getting a continuing highlight on her each transfer who can afford to drag this off, and I am believing her with warning. However I additionally suspect she’s (perhaps) lastly realized what so many people know, and have been begging her to embrace: generally much less is best.