Wonder manages to feel both over-engineered and unfinished / Shawn Mendes / review
By: Red Dziri
Tags: Wonder, Shawn Mendes, Album Review

The album sounds like an over-produced boyband demo over and over again.

Wonder, Shawn Mendes out on Island Records

There’s something almost deceptive in the first minute of Wonder the album: an anticipation builds up, briefly bursts and collapses onto itself as if it never happened. It’s the teaser Shawn Mendes’ fourth studio album needed to raise expectations with an end-of-year release — that will conveniently avoid major publications’ 2020 retrospectives (for better or worse). Unfortunately the initial high isn’t re-created (or even close) anywhere on the record: little on Wonder feels instinctive and, despite the ‘diary-like’ marketing of the album, it doesn’t really feel like Shawn was the only one who could write those tracks.

For all the talk of love and attempts at sensuality, there’s something extremely stiff in the finished product. ‘Teach Me How To Love’ is probably the most arthritic take on nu disco of the year (and there’s plenty to pick from). The track borrows several of the genre’s musical elements like it’s diligently following a manual but it misses the essence of the genre: it conveys none of the sense of freedom disco’s finest is so effortless at communicating. There’s also the Beach Boys inspired ‘305’ that sees Shawn double as his own backing vocalist with vocal flourishes that don’t sound all that necessary. And even more tellingly, ‘Higher’ audibly strives for slinky but falls pretty flat. The whole instrumentation, anchored by an uninspired bass line, is a big deja vu (as in a deja, really deja, vu) — a muted and tame take on its snarky rock underpinning.

Touring across the world (105 shows in 2019! Yes, you read that right, 105!) clearly left a mark on Shawn as he tries to re-capture the stadium grandeur of his earlier work (see Treat You Better, Mercy, In My Blood). The title track’s potential to grow into one big anthem is undeniable — there’s something of Shawn Mendes in this for sure, along with some of his most endearing vocals and lyrics in a while. Other tracks go for it to little avail. ‘Call My Friends’’s mission statement was to make a song that would feel huge live — composed as Shawn was coming down from his tour high. And it will probably for the bulk of his young fanbase who will revel in unison to Shawn singing “I should call my friends and go get high”. It’s all very juvenile but that’s part of the brand. ‘Always Been You’ is a more conclusive take on the Shawn Mendes’ Stadium Number. It would’ve probably benefited more from a penultimate tracklist placement but it’s still a decent effort at galvanising his legion of fans who will wonder if the track is actually about Camila Cabello or actually about them — and like, maybe it’s actually about both? Isn’t Camila actually his biggest stan? His MIND!

Speaking of Camila Cabello, the record is a whole lotta serenading — a big love letter to the woman who Shawn says his music has always been about. ‘Dream’ and ‘Wonder’ are sweet albeit messy efforts — and production is partly (mostly) to blame. ‘Dream’s is perhaps the most adventurous track on the record — its chorus almost sounds like the saccharine end of BROCKHAMPTON’s catalog and hits especially hard the first time around. Kevin Parker (of Tame Impala fame) might also have a hand in influencing this number. For some strange reason, the sweet love songs are not always (read ‘often not’) flattering vocal showcases. ’24 Hours’’s vocals feel a bit uncomfortable; nothing production couldn’t have dealt with without having to re-record any of it yet… ‘Song for No One’’s vocals are not on par with the feelings. Perhaps an attempt at capturing emotion, Shawn sounds pitchy and the whole track feels like a rough draft — he did say he was a bit hungover when he wrote the song but I imagine they had time from when the track was written (three years ago) until Island Records’ delivery date to record it proper? Same goes for the Instagram Live quality of ‘Can’t Imagine’.

All in all, there just isn’t a lot of personality to dig through across the fourteen tracks. The album is presented like an open book — at least that’s the through line Shawn’s going for when promoting his work; which begs the question: is it all false advertising or is the book just not that deep?

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Listen to the album here (Spotify)

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