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Friday Music Guide: New Music From Justin Bieber, Clipse, BLACKPINK & More
This week's new music guide includes Justin Bieber, Clipse, BLACKPINK and more.
And within a couple tracks of Swag, it’s pretty clear this is Bieber as we’ve never really heard him before — stripped of most of his usual big pop trappings, with a much more organic-sounding, alt-R&B-focused sound aided by recognizable sonic architects like Dijon, Mk.Gee and new primary artistic partner Carter Lang supporting his tender ballads of love and devotion. The first two tracks alone show the kind of purpose and focus few rap albums can manage across 10 times that long: opener “The Birds Don’t Sing” finds the brother duo paying heart-rending tribute to a late parent each, while explosive second cut “Chains & Whips” invites the biggest rapper in the world along to take aim at their collective foes — including one obvious common enemy between at least two of them. The sound of Beloved is more classic ’70s soul than modern R&B — check out the Al Green horns on “Rather Be” of the Stylistics electric sitar of “Twenties” and “Numb” — but kept fresh by the distinctiveness of GIVĒON’s voice, sonorous, soaring and forever exquisitely pained.
Or read this on Billboard
