8 February 2013
By Shelby Clemons, Staff Writer
The Bieber we’ve all grown to know and love (or hate completely) has gone acoustic for the second time; as he first did with his 2010 album My World, the “Biebs” re-did his June 2012 album Believe. And Believe: Acoustic has the top spot on iTunes for most popular album.
The affinity for Justin Bieber is something you have on a very hardcore, screaming-teenage-girl level or lack in an I-like-making-fun-of-him-with-every-Internet-joke-I-can-find kind of way. I, for one, fall into the latter, but my fellow non-Beliebers and I must admit that we catch ourselves singing “Boyfriend” whenever we hear it on the radio.
As anti-Bieber as I may be, I find myself giving him an extra half-point for producing an album that is actually tolerable. Although Believe: Acoustic has the same annoying songs that are overplayed on the radio, the acoustic versions are rays of sunshine compared to their auto-tuned counterparts.
Such songs include “As Long as You Love Me,” a repetitive and pointless song, and “Beauty and a Beat,” a play-on-words that only emphasizes the annoying beat. The acoustic versions are still lyrically repetitive, but hearing a guitar with them takes away a little of the pain.
The album features a few new songs such as “Yellow Raincoat,” “I Would” and “Nothing Like Us,” in which Justin Bieber sounds the same as he always does. There is nothing more distracting than his pre-pubescent voice (Internet joke number one), which lacks any original talent and detracts from the whole “mildly tolerable” thing.
This is why so many people dislike Bieber: we do not see the talent. An acoustic album is promising, but people have already heard almost all of the songs, making for slowed-down versions of his already annoying songs.
Somewhere, right now, a dedicated Belieber is thinking that more of the same Bieber songs are the greatest things that ever happened to her, but the rest of us are sick with the obsession. I give Justin Bieber credit for creating mobs of teenage girls wherever here goes, and I’m glad he finally cut his hair (Internet joke number two), but there is no way the talentless singer, who is only trying to make more money than he could ever need, should have a more popular album than Tegan and Sara, Ed Sheeran or Pitch Perfect (see iTunes).
2.5/10
Picture courtesy of www.screenrave.com