In its seven short R&B infused pop tunes, Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber's debut album provides everything you'd expect from a major label teeny bopper. And no, that's not a good thing.
On the other side of the Atlantic, fifteen year old Ontario native Justin Bieber is hot stuff. Following his "discovery" on YouTube, the youngster was signed to Island Records by Usher in late 2008 and has been preened for pop super-stardom ever since. Made up of only seven short tracks, part one of his two part My World debut has clearly been designed for those with a shorter-than-average attention span.
Even so, there's little variation among these heavily produced tracks, each emanating smooth R&B vibes and predictable pop melodies. While up-tempo tracks like One Time, Favourite Girl and Bigger mark the dominant tone, Usher himself turns up to introduce Bieber on the more sultry slow song, First Dance. Meanwhile, Love Me's take on The Cardigan's 'Lovefool' may be blasphemous to lovers of the original, but its bubbly electro-pop bounce provides one of the more enjoyable moments on this exceptionally bland, vapid record.
By all accounts, Bieber is a prodigiously talented boy, having taught himself to play piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet and co-writing three of the seven tracks here, but you could never tell from listening to My World. It's all so processed, so cutesy and clean-cut, so thoroughly tailored towards its specific pre-teen market that any remnants of skill or flair have been rendered completely intangible. Even Bieber's vocal, arguably his top selling-point, is most easily defined by the fact that he sounds like a child.
In his defence, Bieber's accomplishment is still impressive for his short fifteen years, but unless you're a hysterical pre-pubescent who thinks Justin 2.0 is just sooooo dreamy, there's no good reason for you to ever listen to this album.
