Justin Bieber My World 2.0

411mania.com Review:


The album kicks off with Bieber’s most successful song in “Baby”, featuring the teen's vocals gliding cleanly over a fast-paced, kicking beat overlayed with high-pitched synths, turning out a product that’s pleasantly simplistic. Writing from The-Dream and production by Tricky Stewart further proves their amazing chemistry and natural ability to craft a hot song – it’s almost nearing the point of showing off with the string of hits these two have under their respective belts. Serial scene-stealer Ludacris also drops in for one of his highly underrated signature verses – few rappers do R&B features the way he can, and he proves this once again on Bieber’s track. As far as pop songs go, everyone hits their targets and hits them hard. As the best song on the album it perhaps brings things to a peak a little early, but most of the latter tracks hold their own enough to allow it to stand as a decent album.

Bieber follows up with the equally up-tempo “Somebody To Love”, keeping current with the electro-pop trend by implementing a dance beat, along with some winding synths and subject matter that should have his fan base frothing at the mouth. Notable in this song, and quite a few on the rest of the album, is the strength of the melodies in Bieber’s vocals. Indeed, they’re all very catchy, but many come with a hint of “I swear I’ve heard this somewhere before” – while not amazingly original, they do the job of getting stuck firmly in your head. Along with this, the kid proves he actually has some chops throughout the entire album – it’ll be interesting to see whether his voice gets better or worse with age.

The ballads on this album are fairly hit and miss, however. “Stuck In The Moment” does well as the first in the set, with the aforementioned melodies, particularly on the bridge and the latter part of the chorus taking it beyond the plodding pace of a number of the other ballads, like the skip-worthy “Up” and the overly saccharine “U Smile” and “Never Let You Go”. In these last two songs, Bieber suffers from being pigeon-holed into a certain market, since listeners beyond his initial fan base will be turned off by his sickly sweet showings on some of these slower songs. Finally, his duet with Jessica Jarrell “Overboard” works reasonably well as one of the more creative songs on the album, despite sounding like a complete rehash of Jordin Sparks’ “No Air”. While fans will eat these songs up, Bieber simply doesn’t do these types of tracks as well as other former-teen singers, like his mentor Usher, or even Chris Brown have done early on in their careers.

His success undoubtedly lies in the up-tempo – "Runaway Love" in particular being a major highlight. Here, Bieber channels a young Michael Jackson with a strong and catchy vocal, while a thick, buzzing synth pulses over a funky, futuristic beat, making this the best track next to “Baby”. They're not all perfect though – the likely next single “Eenie Meenie” sees Sean Kingston ride shotgun but come off as more of a back-seat driver, completely overshadowing Bieber on a song that suits his own style much better. Bieber’s verses seem phoned-in and bland in comparison to the energy Kingston brings to this electro-influenced RedOne rip-off.

While Bieber doesn’t jump out of the comfort zone of his fan base, he handles some of the more adult subject matter on this album with aplomb, showing a maturity and class a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily expect from him. As a young artist, this album is more formative than definitive – it’ll be most apparent what type of impact he’ll be able to have on the industry two more years down the track, when both his voice and character have been given some time to mature. 


Puntuacion:6.5/10


Planet III Review:

By shelz.

Justin Bieber has one interesting story.  Discovered on Youtube doing Usher covers, the fresh-faced teenager went on to actually audition for Usher.  In a matter of a few years, he managed to sign on LA Reid’s dotted line and now he’s standing shoulder to shoulder with Drake as the hottest Canadian import since round slices of bacon. 

Adding to the never-ending whimsy of the 16-year-old’s meteoric rise are platinum plaques, super-star features and a half-and-half album release plan that has extended his debut LP into a multi-year event. My World the EP was released in November of last year to grand reviews and lots of lil girl screaming adoration.  Four months later, Bieber is back with the second half of the release, My World 2.0.  Don’t get it twisted. This isn’t some Eminem addendum that forces the fans with more than lint in their pockets to purchase some of the same songs twice.  This is completely new cotton candy for the tweeners to eat up. 

Given the fan demographic, it would be silly to look for anything other than disposable puppy love and teen club dance tunes, and there is a lot of that here.  However, in between the standard issue thump, synth, and digitally assisted whine is some decent song construction and a young man with a better than average voice.  He doesn’t push the musical envelope (at all) and there is nothing remotely close to ground breaking here, but Bieber plays the role of young heart throb well and the album will suit the tastes of the intended listeners to a tee.

The lead single, “Baby,” is a mid-tempo song about that first heartbreak with a progression that will remind you of 60’s soul. Ludacris provides the feature as he rhymes down memory lane about the first young lady who stole his heart.  Cute.  The LP moves onto “Somebody to Love.”  It’s faster paced with a generic club track playing foundation to Bieber’s sonic search for that special lil lady to share his world with. Its Studio 54 material with a modern twist, but what isn’t these days?

The album then moves onto tracks that are closer to ballads.  “Stuck in the Moment” is again a syrupy-sweet 16-year-old interpretation of infatuation while “U Smile” is honestly a really good song, even if you’re older than 18.  A real piano is being tinkled as Bieber explains in a rather soulful fashion why he loves his girl’s grin.  It’s definitely the head nodding gem of the album.  “Runaway Love” is another well-constructed track.  It’s pure R&B with graceful arrangement and is probably Bieber’s best vocal performance of the LP.   

Buried, midway through the album, are the meh tracks. “Never Let You Go” lacks energy and reminds me of every other young singer guy track that I skip when turning the radio dial.   The duet with Jessica Jarrell “Overboard” suffers from the same lethargy. By the time the listener gets to “Eenie Meenie” with Sean Kingston, the album appears to have run out of gas.

However, the penultimate and closing songs save the day.  “Up” is smooth and dreamy; a tale of changing cloudy skies to sun soaked better days through the strength of love.  Hey when you’re young, that’s deep. The finale strangely is the heartbreak epic “That Should Be Me,” a tear jerker of the highest order.  She left Justin for another guy? Unfathomable.

My World 2.0 is exactly what it should be.  Bieber and company tap the right audience with the right songs and do it with clean production and decent arrangement. Some of the songs are built solely for the young audience, but a few of the cuts could survive outside of the mall environment. So scrape up your pennies young ladies, the talented Mr. Bieber has a hit on his hands.

Puntuacion 3.5/5

muchmusic.com Review:

It has been about 4 months since the first release of Justin Bieber’s debut CD, My World. As he promised, the second part was released and I have to say, it was a bit disappointing. Not because I did not win the big golden ticket trip to the Bahamas (although that might have helped) but the amount of slow love songs are becoming too recurring from this sixteen-year-old boy. Don’t attack me ladies! He broke his own sales record, so it’s not like he is not pleasing his fans. I’m pretty sure all the ladies in the fan mosaic included bought a CD and there are definitely a lot of little pictures making up Bieber’s face!

At about 38 minutes, the 10-track follow up album has a common theme among them. All of them have something to do with love, whether it’s about getting the girl, falling for the girl, lips being the biggest weakness – this subject got repetitive fast. Bieber recruited 3 guests to help him emphasize his point: Ludacris, Jessica Jarrell, and Sean Kingston. Usher also provided some background vocals in “Somebody to Love” as that was discovered by Perez Hilton through his work in the music industry! Perez has wanted to sign Bieber ever since watching him perform on YouTube. As things didn’t work out, Perez still got to ‘make things happen’ as he believes this will be a big hit for Bieber. Even though it was one slow love song after another, Bieber’s vocals were impressive with hitting high notes, singing those ballads, and co-writing each song.

This album may take a while to get used to as there are not a lot of songs that are microphone singing and dancing in underwear worthy. It was a big change from the first album but you can tell that he worked really hard. Fans that love love songs will enjoy and those who were looking for a change throughout the album will be disappointed. I definitely can’t wait for another album release as I am more than ready to hear what else he has to talk about besides love. Am I asking too much from the fellah? Can you do that for me Justin?! Congrats on the second release and good luck to all the people trying to find the tickets! Time to learn all the songs as Bieber is embarking on North American tour this summer!

Puntuacion: positivo