Switched on Pop - Justin Bieber's Lo-fi Bedroom Swag

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Justin Bieber is back with his seventh studio album: the aptly-titled SWAG. The lo-fi, reverb-laden record is a remarkably candid look inside the world of Bieber, using the palette of both underground pop and 90's R&B to accentuate lyrics about his wife, his struggles, and his "standing on business." Notably, it's his first album post-split with manager Scooter Braun, and the first where Bieber has been in full artistic control. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we tap into the SWAG mindset and attempt to understand Bieber's newfound vision, what it's saying, and ultimately, if it even still matters. Songs discussed: Justin Bieber – DAISIES Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar, Giveon – Peaches Justin Bieber, Sexyy Red – SWEET SPOT The Kid LAROI, Justin Bieber – STAY Justin Bieber, Druski – STANDING ON BUSINESS Justin Bieber – ALL I CAN TAKE Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes Justin Bieber – GO BABY Justin Bieber – TOO LONG Justin Bieber, Gunna – WAY IT IS Justin Bieber, Dominic Fike – Die For You Justin Bieber, Burna Boy – Loved By You Justin Bieber, Lil B – DADZ LOVE Mk.gee – Alesis Mk.gee – Are You Looking Up Dijon – The Dress Justin Bieber – WALKING AWAY Haim – Don't Wanna Justin Bieber, Dijon – DEVOTION Justin Bieber – One Less Lonely Girl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. the Eater app at Eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown-Pop. I'm producer

Rianna Cruz. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan and I'm a songwriter Charlie Harding. There are a few artists that are able to do a successful surprise drop. Out of nowhere, Justin Bieber has dropped his latest record swag and it's claimed the number two spot on the Billboard 200. The Bebes is back. Beaver Fever. Beaver is back. It's his first. album in four years and I just played Daisies, the first single off of Swag. And it sounds wildly different than, I don't know, I could possibly imagine. You know, this is not a Justin Bieber song as we know them. This is no baby, baby, baby, oh, it's not even yummy. Don't take us back there. Daisies is lo-fi, it's intimate and most surprisingly authentic. I wouldn't expect that from Bieber. And yet, most of swag

sounds like this and is so much different than Justin's previous output. Compare one of his most recent hits this decade, the song Peaches. To a track on Swagues out in Georgia, oh yeah shit. I get my week from California. That's that shit. I took my hook up to the north, yeah. Bad ass bitch.

I get my light right from the source, yeah. Yeah, that's it. To a track on swag like Sweet Spot featuring sexy red. The sound is more lo-fi. the lyrics seem a little less eager to please. Is this Bieber in his bedroom pop era? Maybe. I mean, it's a weird pivot to me.

The album does not feature people like Benny Blanco, but rather artists like Gunna and Lil B. And Cash Cobain, like these hip-hop artists that Bieber clearly loves. And the way I see it, swag is a record that is more indebted to Bieber's tastes than the world of mainstream pop. The first time I heard it, I was a little upset because last summer I went on a Mariah Carey Deep Dive and I was like, someone needs to bring back the amazing combination of R&B and hip hop that she did. The sounds of the 808 drum machine, but with like the cheesy 80s and 90s synthesizers. Yeah. And here comes Bieber doing just that thing, sealing my brilliant idea that I did not execute.

So you're not mad at the music. you're mad at having the rug pulled out from under you, so to speak. Yeah, clearly I was going to make swag, and he did it before I did. Okay, just want to establish the pettiness. Okay, Rihanna, where did this album come from? What's it doing in the Beaver discography? Well, most interestingly, Swag is the first Justin Bieber album, where the Bebes has 100% control.

A source told Rolling Stone that this is Bieber in his, quote, purest form. And this record is his first post-split from his manager, Scooter Braun. Scooter discovered him, has guided his career up to now, has been Bieber's kind of right-hand man. And now that he's not around, Bieber now has more liberty to pursue the things that he wants to pursue. For the first time, Justin Bieber is able to showcase his vision. And so today, I want to look at the record swag and assess what exactly is that vision. Beber Unchained. And maybe after we assess his vision, we can come to the conclusion,

do we even care? Question mark. I'm not really a believer, but this record has kind of grabbed me, and I'm very compelled by it. And I'm curious if Bieber still has a seat at the table of pop A-listers after we listen to Swag today. I'm totally in. Bieber is such a fascinating figure in the pop world,

someone who, of course, began as a child star and then became, I think, sort of a punchline for a lot of mainstream music critics and listeners. And now, after, you know, a series of personal tribulation seems to be trying to find his way in the world. How is that going to be expressed with this album? Where do we start, Rihanna? I think it helped to frame swag in the context of Bieber over the past few years. Lots has happened in the world of Justin Bieber since its last album release, Justice, which came out in 2021. That album had peaches, which we heard earlier.

Since then, he dabbled in contemporary Christian music with an EP called Freedom. Where you go I follow, you're with me every step of the way. Here in the struggle, your love's enough to watch it all the way. He featured on the song Stay with Kid Leroy, which did gangbusters. Up if you can't be right here. I do the same thing. Well, mostly Bieber has been in the news for his personal issues, not for his music. He's canceled concerts due to chronic illness he has.

He spoke out about his issues with substance abuse. Has been in a public battle over his masters with the aforementioned Scooter Braun. But more positively, is now a dad. He had a baby last year. Mausel. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the Bieber family, is employing a number of nannies. But if there is any sleep deprivation going on in that family,

I'm empathetic to what's going on. I mean, maybe there's a sleep deprivation thing happening. When I see a clip like Justin Bieber's now infamous, it's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business. Clearly, this man is dealing with a lot. Yeah. You're not getting it. It's not clocking to you.

It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business, is it? That was him talking to a paparazzi who was harassing him and his family. But something I love about Bieber is that he always seems to have a sense of humor. It's gotten him in trouble before, for the record. But looking to swag, he references this instantly quotable clip on the track standing on business. You're not getting it. It's not clocking to you. It's not clocking to him that I'm standing on business, is it? I don't give a fuck your own sidewalk.

I'm a human comedian. You're standing around my car. At the beach. Yeah, a bit of misplaced AIAV slang. Justin's always trying on some different cultures, isn't he? But he's able to laugh at himself with this skit. That shows some kind of growth, I think. He's having fun with it. Give him that.

But with all this in mind, swag is much different than we're used to from Justin Bieber. Bieber has always been firmly in the pop machine, making hits with the biggest ticket pop producers. He hasn't really ever been pushing any boundaries. What I want to do today is look at a few specific tracks from swag and see what we could deduce about Bieber's new profound artistic vision from them. And I think we should start with one of my favorites, the first track on the album, the first introduction to the new world of Bieber,

the song, all I can take. Love it. That is a groove. I mean, right off the bat, it's kind of jarring how different this song is for Bieber. Oh, yeah. We got these 80 synthesizers. We have this percussive beat. It's absolutely laden in reverb.

You know, it feels kind of like you're underwater, being swallowed. Both of those sounds, I feel like, are throughout this record. The throwback synthesizers, things that haven't been cool in 25, 30 years, especially drawing from sort of 80s cheesy romantic ballad kind of sounds. And then on the other hand, so much of the production feels like it's happening in the room next to you. He's distant. You can't always hear what he's saying.

I think some of that feeling of wanting to be removed from the public eye, you can almost hear it in the way. that they've produced his voice. It's not up front and forward. It's kind of cowering off in the corner somewhere. He's in the mix of the music. He's not in front of it. And it's all he can take. I'm like, ah, leave me alone.

The words kind of like float in and out. This echoey delay. Bieber infamously described the sound of his record. I think it must have been purpose, you know, maybe 10 years ago as having expensive sounds. Do you remember this? He kind of got a little bit of flack for it. He was like, oh, yeah, we've got the most expensive sounds,

and people are like, don't all sounds cost the same? You know, I say justice for Bieber, no, they don't. Yeah. Sounds are expensive people. Yes. But all to say, this doesn't sound like an expensive sounding record. It sounds a little low budge, right? He went to the pawn shop, bought a synthesizer that was $70,

put together a beat on an old dusty drum machine, and put it through a tape machine. And that gives you that feeling you were referencing, Rian. It feels a little more honest, vulnerable. candid, I think. Yeah, the first thought I had when I listened to this song, I pressed play. And at the end of the first track, I was like, wow, this is what I wished.

The weekend album that came out this year sounded like. Oh. That album went the other direction, maximalist, sensorial overload. Right. And I didn't realize I was missing this sound until I listened to this record, which leads me to the first prophetic declaration from Bieber

he is over the traditional pop machine. Gone are the days of sorry and what do you mean. Pop as we know it is in the rear view and we are in the era of R&Bber. He's always wanted to be an R&B artist and has said many times that people don't understand this record is not a pop record. You know, this is an R&B record. Yeah. Which is, you know, a complicated thing to claim, right? R&B definitionally is very loose.

It can mean music by and for black people. It can be a certain sound. 90s R&B you can think of as a sound. It can be a history, the history of Motown. And at any given moment, these sounds and cultures of people that make this music might either be in mainstream pop and the biggest sound or might be sort of more in the background. So what Bieber means by R&B can be slippery and complicated.

Totally. But I think in the world of Justin Bieber, his version of R&B is vocal-forward. music. His voice is his instrument. And on all I can take, he has a couple different vocal modes that he's doing. We have the swallowed, muted delivery that we heard him use at the beginning of the track. And in between the lines, you could hear him do kind of Michael Jackson-esque vocal flourishes, speaking of 90s R&B, there's like teeth clicking and breathiness. I did not clock that the first time. Very Michael, very Janet as well. Doesn't get enough credit for also using that same style.

This mode that he's using the single lines, all I can take is different than how he sings in the verses. I think the verses are a little bit messy when it comes to pitch and tone in the way that he's delivering these lyrics. When he's saying sensitivity, he's kind of scooping up into the note. He's got these little vocal flourishes,

which are very rough and almost feel like something he's doing aside on a mic in the room one time, totally improvised. It kind of sounds like he's gritting his. teeth a little bit as he's singing, like he's straining. Yeah, his vocal quality has always sounded a little, you know, boyish to me. I think it feels like he's striving for something that's got a little more depth and maturity and, like, worldliness on this record.

Yeah, there's a character to his delivery. And to me, it's Loki the best Bieber has sounded in years. He's comfortable. There's a little impurity to it that feels new for him. and Bieber's vocals have always been good. He's a singer. But what he's doing on All I Can Take and other songs on this album, it's reminding me of artists that aren't great singers,

but have vocal character. The climax of All I Can Take reminds me of songs by Peter Gabriel, for example. Groove-driven synthesizers, arpeggiating in the background, lots of artificial reverb. Same thing. That's the end of In Your Eyes. And even though there's this climax of sound and everything is kind of swirling around you,

the vocals aren't really front and center. It's kind of a part of this larger tornado of sound that's swirling around the listener. I can hear the influence. So all I can take sets up the sound of this album right from the get-go. We know we're getting a more murky sound, one that challenges what we know about Bieber's voice.

and his comfort with how his voice comes across on the record. One of my favorite songs on the album is the track Go Baby, where the vocals are the star of the show, and he's doing what is essentially a classic 90s R&B ballad. I love that production. I feel like the only thing that's missing are like some stacked vocal harmonies in the chorus. That's maybe what you'd find in a 90s R&B track

that isn't really present here is like a thick, just like four-part, chordal harmony. Go, go, go. Yeah, there we got a little pyramid trying to. I love it. Yeah, go, go, go. But that's okay. I totally hear the R&B influence. I like it.

It's got those really slow drums that are responding and in conversation with the vocal. The backbeats are dragged. Every snare is coming in just a little bit. And it makes you start to nod your head. It's very sexy music. Maybe you'd also like the song Too Long, which splits the difference between Go Baby and all I can take. I think his vocals here are a double-stacked, so it's a pleasing effect on the ear.

But again, they're pulled back. into the mix. There are a wash in reverb. Oftentimes, when you're producing vocal reverb, you want to sort of sit behind the vocal, as if you can hear there's like something washing and beautiful, but instead this reverb envelops the entire vocal. It pushes it further into the mix, back into the instruments. It makes it feel like he's a little bit farther away from us. It's a very not standard way of producing a pop vocal. And I think it's the sort of thing that for most listeners, they might not identify of the vocals plays in this particular place in the mix

and it means this, but rather, it has this feeling of like, this isn't quite a pop record. It's aiming at something a little bit different because it's not, it doesn't sound like how I would expect. Which leads me to the second part of Bieber's vision. So we have the R& Bieber aesthetic and that's a

significant part of what's happening on swag. But also, I think Bieber sees himself as a curator. There's certain artists that when they make a big ticket record, right? They can be single-handedly responsible for bringing up smaller artists in the scene.

Like Beyonce's knighting of Shabuzi on Cowboy Carter. Sure. Or when Rihano Bandanti with a Siza feature a year before control came out and Sizer really blew up. In both of these cases, I have reason to believe these artists genuinely like their collaborators

and like their sounds and did discovery and finding them perhaps a little bit of A&R, but also I really believe, like, these musicians wanted to do the professional equivalent of hyping them up, right? Putting them on these big-ticket albums showcasing their sound.

On swag, Beber takes a similar curatorial approach. There's been hints of this in his catalog through recent years. I mean, taking a quick spin through his last record justice, there were songs like Die For You, which highlighted Dominic Fike. Or the song Loved by You featuring Burn a Boy, which was Justin's pivot into Afrobeats, something that he's revisited quite a lot in the past few years.

On Swag, there's a song with rapper Gunna called Way It Is. There's a sexy red collab sweet spot, which we played earlier. And there's even a track with the prolific underground rap. Lill B, which really caught me off guard, the song Dad's Love. That's D-A-D-Z Love. Do you guys play that every day when you look in the mirror in the morning? That's my alarm clock. Dad's Love.

There's recent article by the music critic Alphonse Pierre in Pitchfork where he talked about this, like Bieber's genuine love, maybe even obsession for like black urban culture. he was talking about Bieber being featured in this remix of a Rob 49 track, What the Hellie? And, you know, actually he DM'd Rob 49 being like, yo, like, let me hop on this. You know, whether that crosses the line into something more like appropriation or not, I think is like always a constant conversation. But like, well, it also goes all the way back to Bieber as a young kid. Like, he's not someone who's just dabbling here and there. That song, Dad's Love, is based off of a.

sample of him playing a breakbeat at age two. Wow. I didn't know that. Oh, that's crazy. Dude, that's like, uh, it sounds like a UK garage breakbeat or something. Yeah. That's advanced. From like an obscure sample pack.

Really earning the title swag. He's had it since he was two years old. Wow. Wait, he was two years old? Shit, dude. Our kids are way behind. They're way behind. He was not two years old playing that beat.

That he was eight years old. Two years old. Charlie, I have a two year old. They cannot drum like that. Yours can't. There's some, no, no kids can't. A two-year-old can't even say, hi, my name is Justin Bieber,

and I play the drums. Charlie, what is going on? You have a two-year-old. What is happening? I think he is. No, he's not. Stop. It's insane.

Like, why are you sticking to this? You know, I am seeing the title of this YouTube clip being Justin Bieber at two years of age drumming. Justin Bieber, two years old drumming. Granted, he doesn't look like a two-year-old in this photo. No, he's sold before. He looks young. Maybe they quantized it, made it sound better.

I am stressing because I do feel the need to go lock my kids in a studio with a drum set, throwing a pair of sticks. Three meals a day. Don't come out until you can play a UK garage breakbeat. You're not welcome in this house. I'm slipping. Their musical future is, you know, dissipating in front of my eyes. Okay, wait, what are you talking about?

We're talking about swag and how two-year-olds may or may not have drumming swag. But nonetheless, pivoting off of Dad's Love, I think the most notable collaboration on Swag can be found in the way that the album sounds. We've been talking about this kind of reverb-heavy, lo-fi-ish anti-pop palette. And I think it's most evidenced in Swag's first single, The Track, Daisies. I heard this and the first thing I thought was, Nate Sloan better get a credit on this record because I am hearing the distinct fingerprints of Michael McGee, Todd Gordon, former student of Dr. Sloan's.

Yes, famously dropped out immediately after taking my pop history class. It would be so inspired to make this great B-B record. Presumably because there was nothing else to learn at that point. But I'll wait for my check. Yeah, this record sounds like a... The McGee record. McGee is known for that lo-fi sound. He has a very idiosyncratic way of playing the guitar, where rather than plugging into an amplifier, he plugs into a tape machine. He loves those 80s synths. Everything sounds like it's in a bedroom, not in a professional studio. It's the hallmark of the McGee sound.

You know, those in the know love McGee, but it's definitely still on the come-up. And so I was pretty excited to hear that sound on a Bieber record. Yeah, this is the first time the McGee's, sound has been platformed to this extent. Daisies earns Bieber his 27th career top 10 on the Hot 100, and like other songs on Swag, wears its influences on its sleeve. McGee is a writer and producer on this song, as well as other tracks on the album. But it also sounds like McGee's contemporary Dijon, the two have worked together extensively and have crafted a similar sound. Let's listen to the top of Daisies. So right from the get-go, we got a guitar-heavy sound, basic snare kick drum combo.

It's like you can hear it. You know, you're in the room. And the guitar sounds interesting. What exactly is happening here, I ask, the musicologist and the songwriter? McGee plays, I think, a baritone guitar with flat-wound strings. So that means you're going to be tuning the guitar way down to a lower register, a fifth below the standard guitar. So you get much guttural lower sounds. Then when you use flat wound strings instead of steel wound strings, you get a more muted, hollow sound rather than the brightness you think of like blues and rock. Typically those strings are used by jazz players, something much more tame. And so you get this very haunting sound. Again, it's not sent through a guitar amplifier, but rather through a preamp on a tape deck.

Unlike the vocals, it's actually the thing that's kind of right in front of you. It feels unprocessed. It feels unrefined. It's very idiosyncratic, uniquely McGee. And basically, every kid learning guitar right now is like, I want that sound. I'm going to go to Reverb.com and buy all the things that'll make me sound like McGee. Because it's totally unique. I haven't heard anything like it except the Heim record, Women and Music Part 3,

features this same style, sort of direct lo-fi guitar all over it. I just have to put that out there for the record. And then there's the sound of the drums. Can we hear that? It's so simple. It's like bass, snare, bass, snare, bass, snare. Then there's one little fill at the very end. Symbol, bass, snare. It's shockingly simple for a drum part of a hit pop song in 2025. We're used to hearing like syncopated trap hats and all sorts of incredible percussion effects.

This is just boom, chip, boom, chip. But that's the point. It really puts the focus on the intricacy of the guitar part and the vocal itself. Production on Daisies is from a bunch of heavy hitters, Carter Lang, Eddie Benjamin, to name a few, but most specifically, as we've been talking about, McGee and Dijon, and you can trace the drums and the guitar to McGee's sound, but the lo-fi drums are on a track like Elysses off of his last record to Star and the Dream Police. And the guitars, of course, are heard all over McGee's work, like on his song, Are You Looking Up? What Justin Bieber is doing is essentially creating a McGee record in its instrumentation

with the atmosphere of a Dijon record. The album sounds a lot like Dijon hits like the track, the dress. Oh, and there are those 80s keyboards too. So if we see swag as an equation, it's like, what if Dijon's brand of R&B was combined with McGee's Sonic Flourishes? In fact, there's even a song with an explicit Dijon feature, the track Devotion. So here he's working with people like McGee and Dijon that have a demonstrated sound and presence outside of the Hot 100. And by putting them on swag and working with them over multiple tracks, it's like Bieber is putting on people he loves.

It's a great collaboration. It sounds like these people are having fun. It works well, in my opinion. And seems to be really fruitful on moving Bieber in a newfound artistic direction. So swag highlights the R& Bieber quality of our artist's voice. It inducks a number of up-and-coming artists into the ranks to get a, current path-breaking sound on this record. But Rihanna, how does this fit into like the larger

Bieber cosmology? Like, what is he trying to say lyrically on this album? Well, that's the third aspect of his newfound artistic motive, and we'll get to that after the break. Attention, Spotify. Has arrived on the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute

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Every Saturday in your audio and video feeds. So the third thing that Bieber is doing on swag is showcasing his personal narrative. You could hear it in the lyrics, especially on a track like walking away. Rian, it's interesting earlier you brought up the Jackson-influenced voice. vocal rhythmic inflections.

Here, I feel like we're getting a lyrical nod to a song off of the album, Thriller, Human Nature, written by Steve Piccaro of Toto and John Bettis, a song which I feel like is the number one adult contemporary ballad. It really sort of establishes a kind of romantic ballad sound

that is, in many ways, all over, swag. And so when he sings, it's just human nature, these growing pains, I think he's also connecting his song walking away to a larger history of romantic R&B. Human nature is the ballad source text. But lyrically, on walking away, Bieber is directly addressing rumors of marital discord

between him and his wife, Haley Bieber, who he's been married to for several years now. The way the song is structured, the verses kind of detail their arguments. Tell me why are you throwing stones at my back? Girl, we better stop before we say some shit. We've been testing our patience. Then he follows it with, of course, the chorus of the song.

He's as steady as the beat. He's not going away. He's going to keep on moving through this thing. It's like he's affirming. I'm not walking away. I know what you've heard. I'd be arguing with my wife. Don't we all?

I'm not going anywhere. Interesting to hear Bieber led us into like some of the darkness in a relationship. Earlier you played us peaches. And he did talk about his relationship, but only to say, my wife's a badass bitch. Now it's a little more complicated. It's not all peaches and cream. There's stones being thrown, insults being hurled. There's work to be done.

Swag is unafraid of showcasing Bieber's personal narrative, which makes sense for, for somebody who has spent their whole life in the public eye. You know, Bieber got famous when he was a kid. But he also isn't the Taylor Swiftian type to put his life in his lyrics. This album and songs like Walking Away are much more candid than we're used to from him. And I think part of that is because Justin Bieber's appeal can be sourced to the whole teenage heartthrob of it all. You know, I grew up alongside Beber.

pretty much. He's a handful of years older than me. And even though I wasn't a believer specifically, I'm surrounded by believers, you know, they walk among us. And part of why he's able to capture so many hearts is that the music that he was writing and putting out when he was a teenager, avoid specificity where young listeners can hear a song like One Less Lonely Girl and imagine themselves as the one less lonely girl. It's very safe. Extremely. And a sweep of Justin Bieber's early singles all have this similar perspective. He's talking to you.

I think the title of swag can even be sourced to his song, Boyfriend, where he says, Swag, Swag, Swag on You. If I was your boyfriend, I never let you go. I could take your places you ain't never been before. Baby, take a chance so you'll never ever know. I got money in my hands that I really. like to flasetto. Swat, swag. While we eating fondue, I don't know about me, but I know about you.

So say hello to Falsato in three, two, swag. Wow, I forgot about that. Say hello to Falcetto. In three, two, swag. He's had it from the start. But anyway, these songs are designed for people to listen to and fantasize about. You know, you hear a song like boyfriend, which starts with, if I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go. and thinking of Justin Bieber's image as a heartthrob, people latch on to that. On swag, he shuns that idea, and he kind of steps away from this sweeping generalization of the subject of his work

to get hyper-specific about his life and his relationship. Revisiting a song that we listened to earlier, the track Go Baby. Babyer leaves no questions about who the baby in question is here, starting with the opening line. She's iconic iPhone case Lip gloss on it In all my days That's my baby

She's iconic Phone case Lip gloss on it referring to his wife Haley Bieber's brand Road and their lip gloss folding phone cases A little product placement

Very nice You know that's actually clarifying Because I'm like Why the hell are we talking about A phone case in this song And now I understand He's shilling for his wife. That's kind of sweet and gross at the same time. Not the idea of creating a place to store

your lip gloss. Obviously, you know, that can be very handy. No, wait. That's disgusting. I mean gross in the sense of like, selling a product. Your phone, this thing is covered. Why? Because it might melt into your phone or something. No, there's like more germs on your phone case than there are on a toilet seat. Don't put your lips on your phone case. Terrible idea. No, it's a way to store your gloss, I thought. Yeah, no, it's a way to store your lip gloss. You don't like hold the phone up to your lips and smear it all over your face, Charlie. It's like a carrying case for your lip gloss. Nope, don't do it.

It's a case with a little divot in it, and Road makes a specific type of lip gloss that fits exactly in the road phone case. So it's kind of a two-for situation. I feel like we are now getting into the product placement of it all. Have you been sponsored, Brianna Cruz? Maybe. I don't know.

Who's this hashtag ad? Don't trust them. But anyway, there's little nods to Haley all over the album, and I appreciate Bieber's candor in referencing her. This is new territory for Bieber, and the third aspect of his large, grandiose vision, which leads me to my final question.

We've established the Bieber's current vision and sound. So now I ask, do you two even care as two Bieber skeptics is his sound worth it to you? I'm not sure I'm a Bieber skeptic. I really enjoy this record, but it does feel like it contains an inherent contradiction. On the one hand, he has this challenging relationship with the paparazzi and the public eye. Like, leave me alone.

Let me live my life in private. And then we have this album. It's raw. It's naked. He's pulling everything away. We are in the bed sheets. And so it makes me wonder how much does he actually not want that scrutiny or how much is he also re-inviting that scrutiny?

It's scintillating, certainly. And thus, it is, I think, a very successful commercial approach. But it makes me wonder, how is a right? responsible fan should I treat this work and treat him. Like, I think we are all somewhat responsible as listeners for the ills that befall celebrities, because I think celebrities no good for anyone's psyche. We've all contributed to that in Beaver as listeners. Is he asking us to keep doing it? I'm not sure. The way I see it, I see it as him being super candid in a way so that people stop speculating. It's a trick mirror. Nate, what do you think? I do care. That's where I'm at. After this

conversation, I'm invested. And I've really been enjoying these tracks. I've learned about some new artists that I wasn't, you know, as familiar with. I'm not particularly interested in the Beaver's personal life, but it's like compelling development within the saga of this artist. Yeah, this is cool. There's a lot of swag on this record. And it's maybe the most connected I've ever been to an artistic work from this equally celebrated and reviled on. omnipresent figure of popular culture. Point taken from the both of you. I care, but with an asterisk.

At the beginning of the episode, I said this is the first record after Justin has left Scooter Braun. At a similar age to Justin Bieber, I offer a point of comparison. Beyonce split from her manager. Her manager was also her father, so different dynamics, but both had a really close career forming manager that essentially founded their early sound. after she did that, Beyonce released self-titled Beyonce, which introduced the surprise drop, shifts at the industry's release schedule.

Now I'm not saying Swag is on the level of Beyonce's self-titled, but I do think there is something interesting happening in the arc of J.B.'s career with this move. Swag was also surprise released, features a more mature, different sound than his previous albums, both things similar to Beyonce coming off of Four and Sasha Fierce, and Swagg offers the artistic point of view of Justin Bieber, something previously obscured.

Something to chew on. And if this is any indication, I'm interested with the asterisk being, maybe next record, Justin Bieber will put out his lemonade that will really shake up the industry. All right, believers. Let's get information. If and when he does, see you then. The Bieber album is a bright spot in a summer of music that many critics have described as

lacking a song of summer. There is a lot of concern. Has the song of summer disappeared as a phenomenon? Has the industry and economics of music in 2025 negated that universal anthem we can all coalesce around? Let's investigate that a little further in next week's episode featuring a very special guest, the summer bummer question mark. Tune in next Tuesday, folks. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineered by Brian McFarlane, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, theme music by Jossi Adams and Zach Tenario of Arc Iris, remember of the Vox Media Podcast Network at production of Vulture, which is part of New York magazine. You can subscribe at mymag.com slash pod. You can go to our website,

sign up for our newsletter at switchdownpop.com. We'll be back again next Tuesday. And until then, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.