Justin Bieber has finally returned with a new album, Swag — his first full-length record since 2021’s Justice.
The 21-song project has a runtime of more than 51 minutes, and sees Bieber collaborate with artists including Gunna, Cash Cobain, Sexyy Red, and Mk.gee. Touching on themes spanning marriage, fame and fatherhood, Swag was released on Friday, less than 24 hours after Bieber began teasing the project with mysterious billboards around the globe.
CBC Music dove into the album, looking at the songwriting, featured artists, producers and more. Below are five takeaways from Swag.
The word swag is often thought to be a shortened form of swagger, utilized by none other than William Shakespeare to refer to a cocky strut. Although the bard first popularized the term, it had a resurgence in the 2010s thanks to Bieber.
“I have a swagger coach that helps me and teaches me different swaggerific things to do,” he said, and between the coach and uttering the lyrics “Swag swag swag, on you,” the pop star had an entire era dedicated to refining it.
His relationship to swag soured over the years. Ryan Good, the swag coach, left Bieber’s team in 2011, and by 2013, Bieber decreed swag was dead.
“I don’t really like to say the word anymore. It’s kind of played out,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.
But by naming his album Swag, Bieber is making a bold reclamation. The title track serves as a direct callback to the early days of his career, and on Swag he sings, “Yeah, swag, for sure (swag on me),” to let listeners know that he’s got his swagger back. The song features rapper Cash Cobain and songwriter/producer Eddie Benjamin, who both celebrate Bieber’s return as they sing and rap, “Got swag, for sure.”
Bieber worked with a number of producers and songwriters for the first time on Swag. The fingerprints of indie darlings Dijon and Mk.gee are all over this record. The two musicians have songwriting and production credits on four of the 21 songs, but their fuzzed-out, guitar-leaning sound crops up throughout. Forgoing the glossy production of his previous albums for a more left-field foray into pop and R&B is a fresh direction for the 31-year-old star, who has been releasing music since he was 15. This experimental era could be a result of him being free of his former manager Scooter Braun‘s influence.
Daisies, written by Bieber, Mk.gee, Tobias Jesso Jr., Dijon and more, is a wonky electric guitar ditty that finds Bieber with a laidback delivery that belies the lovesick, obsessive lyrics.
Devotion, written by Bieber, Dijon, and Daniel Caesar, among others, could be a B-side from Dijon’s 2021 album, Absolutely. Carter Lang, who has worked with Rihanna, Doja Cat and Post Malone, and produced SZA’s genre-defining debut album, CTRL, produced 20 of the album’s tracks and, alongside Sir Dylan (who produced 18 songs), helps to bridge the gap between the Bieber we’ve come to know and the new sonic choices being made on this record.
Knox Fortune, responsible for Chance the Rapper’s best party song, All Night, produced two songs on Swag: First Place and Dadz Love, an expansive track about paternity that includes a vibey drum break that would fit seamlessly on a U.K. garage track. The drums seemed to be sampled from a video of a young Bieber playing a beat on a table.
“What could he possibly have to say,” said one X user when they found out Druski would be on Bieber’s surprise album. The comedian, whose skits have amassed millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram, was most recently in the news after being named and then dismissed in the Sean (Diddy) Combs sexual-assault lawsuit. Druski is now seeking sanctions against the plaintiffs and their legal team. (Fans originally thought Bieber could have been a victim in the Combs allegations — a rumour that he put to rest in May.)
Druski is featured on the interludes Soulful, Therapy Session and Standing on Business, with a bit of insight coming through his conversations with the pop star — e.g. the consequences of Bieber’s young age of superstardom on Therapy Session — but it’s mostly the comedian taking the piss.
“Your skin is white but your soul is Black,” Druski jokes on Soulful, before offering Bieber one of his Black and Mild cigars. (Druski offers him another Black and Mild at the end of Therapy Session, right before the track ends on his coughing fit.) Standing on Business opens with the viral clip of Bieber yelling the title line at paparazzi more than a year after Druski’s Standing on Business video dropped, and ends up being a pronunciation-appreciation track.
“JB and Druski are the duo we didn’t know we needed,” Complex posted when Swag dropped. Jury’s still out!
Over the years, Bieber has rounded out the glossy pop bangers on his studio albums with gentle acoustic ballads. They’re an underappreciated side of his artistry — but there are none of those on Swag. (There aren’t many pop bangers either, to be honest.)
The closest he comes is Devotion, a gently loping duet with Dijon that’s built over a deep bassline and spare drums while an electric guitar provides subtle commentary. The vibe is casual, like a late-night jam session on a porch.
“I’d rather take the long way home,” reflects Bieber in Verse 2, “so we can laugh and sing a couple more songs.” The track’s soulful intimacy stems, at least in part, from Daniel Caesar, who’s listed as one of its producers. The other songs that fans of acoustic Bieber should check out are vocals-forward Go Baby and the quasi-improvisational Butterflies.
The album ends with a track that’s not credited to Bieber at all. Instead, Forgiveness is written by Rick Founds and performed by Detroit pastor and gospel singer Marvin Winans. Founds wrote this worship song in 1989, originally titled Lord, I Lift Your Name on High, and it’s been performed by various artists, in numerous languages, over the years.
Founds apparently composed this song while thinking about the cycle of redemption, a theme that is clearly reflected throughout Swag. For example, on Glory Voice Memo, Bieber mirrors Founds’s words by singing, “I reach out my hands, I’m beggin’ you for mercy/ please, Lord, would you please?”
Perhaps similar to Bieber’s controversial use of a Martin Luther King Jr. sermon on his last album, Justice, Forgiveness serves as a way to amplify someone else’s words while underscoring his desire for compassion and understanding.
