June 2018 - Music

Album of the Month - Shawn Mendes

On his self-titled third album, Shawn Mendes moves away from twee pop to embrace stadium rock and slick funk. Shawn Mendes is the epitome of millennial success. This is a teenager who, aged 14, gained millions of fans over the course of only few months after he started posting short videos of himself covering songs on Vine (RIP) in 2013. The next year, he was signed to Island, and in 2015 (by which time he was basically an OAP, at 16), Shawn dropped his debut album ‘Handwritten’. Saccharine and twee, you’d mistake him for a member of the mouse house, but his army of fans adored it: It went straight to number one in both his native Canada and the US, and has since gone platinum in both countries. All of this in the space of two years.

There’s been another album since, 2016’s ‘Illuminate’, which showed a more grown-up sound and spawned a handful of excellent pop singles (‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back’ and ‘Treat You Better’ in particular). But now in 2018 it’s almost as if Shawn has hit the “reset” button, releasing his self-titled third album – the universal sign of a career regeneration – and moving away from the sugary sweet sound he won over the Internet with. Instead, he’s produced a record that borrows from his mentor John Mayer, as well as huge stadium rock bands like Kings of Leon and R&B arena fillers like Bruno Mars.