Release Date: Dec 4, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Island
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Wonder is the first album Shawn Mendes has released as an adult, so perhaps it's appropriate that the 2020 record feels like the work of a musician who has entered a period of maturation. It's not so much that Wonder feels stiff or stuffy, as if Mendes were writing songs for an older version of himself. Rather, Mendes attempts a variety of styles and sounds while also expanding his emotional range.
Since his rise to fame for his covers on Vine as a 14-year-old, Shawn Mendes has consistently worked towards a sound that establishes musical maturity. Almost two years after the release of his self-titled third studio album, the 22-year-old aims high with his fourth record 'Wonder', which attempts to diversify his well-established rock-tinged pop soundscape. Opening track aptly titled 'Intro', lays down a strong foundation for the 13-track production with a lilting piano instrumental and Mendes' signature breathy vocals which ripples into falsetto.
Shawn Mendes wants the world to know: He is madly in love. As the 22-year-old singer explains in the recent Netflix documentary Shawn Mendes: In Wonder, every song he has ever written is about his pop star peer and girlfriend, Camila Cabello. Like all lovestruck wordsmiths, Mendes finds his true feelings too powerful to fully express. "I think it's like when you see a moon or stars and you try and take a photo of it with your iPhone and then you just can't, it just doesn't look good," he muses.
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