Shawn Mendes' "Wonder"

The promotion leading up to the final release of Shawn Mendes new album “Wonder” has been as creative as spectacular. It started with a tattoo of the album title on Mendes arm in August, continued with a teaser Mendes posted on social media saying “what is #wonder” and revealing that this was the album title a few hours later, accompanied by the first release of the album intro. The highly emotional and vulnerable lead single “Wonder” was released in October, the amazing Justin Bieber boom bap collaboration “Monster” in November, featuring one of the main topics of the upcoming album, the ups and downs of stardom.

On November 13 our anticipation for the album peaked when Netflix released the documentary “Shawn Mendes: In Wonder” which dives into the making of it. What a brilliant way to get us all super hyped! Finally today the album dropped.

Shawn Mendes wrote or co-wrote every song on the pop album, mostly about fame and falling in love with Camila Cabello. Sonically it contains the familiar acoustic sound and sensitive tenor he’s known for but vocally also shows new sides with him belting out on “Song For No One” and generally pushing new boundaries in dynamics gaining him the USA Today statement of "his most experimental work so far”. From “Dream”’s glistening vocal harmonies reminding of the beach boys and spacey synthesizers, to the bombastic rocky chorus “Look Up at the Stars”, disco beats on “Pieces Of You’ to intimate moments with just the organ and his voice on “Always Been You” Mendes covers a lot of ground on the horizon of soundscapes.

Lyrically, Mendes lets us in to his head and heart more than ever before. The album “Wonder” shows us his real struggle to balance confidence in a world in which you’re loved my millions in one moment but could be dropped in the next as in the song “ Monster”. But mostly it describes the beautiful journey he’s on with Camila. His song “Can’t Imagine” shows how deep he’s in it with her: "All the birds would stop their songs without you // All things right would feel so wrong … Without you, I’d always be alone // Without you I don’t know where to go."

The album is incredibly versatile and a true step forward for Shawn Mendes into being an artist that will always try to evolve and be more of who he really is.

Here’s what Shawn had to say about the album himself: "It really feels like a piece of me has been written down on paper and recorded into song. I tried to be as real and as honest as I've ever been. It's a world and a journey and a dream and an album I've been wanting to make for a really long time. I absolutely love it. Thank you for being by my side for so many years. I love you all so much.”