“Got a lotta talk in my brain right now/Sorry, gotta do it, gotta let you down,” Shawn Mendes sings on the pointedly titled “Who I Am,” the acoustic opening track from his fifth studio album. The meditative Shawn comes two years after Mendes canceled his 2022 world tour due to mental health issues, and the singer’s new music is emblematic of a newfound self-reflection. The result is his most candid work to date.
With nothing but time on his hands to take stock of his life, Mendes sounds at peace with not knowing life’s big questions. “I stepped off the stage with nothing left/All the lights were fuckin’ with my head,” he sings on lead single “Why Why Why.” “But here I am, singing songs again.”
On “The Mountain,” Mendes evokes John Lennon’s “Imagine” as he looks both inward and outward in an attempt to reconnect with his higher self. “You can say I’m a dreamer/You can say I’m too far gone,” he hums. “But I feel somethin’ different/So call it what you want.” He goes on to address persistent rumors surrounding his sexuality, making it clear he doesn’t owe anyone an answer: “You can say I like girls or boys/Whatever fits your mold.”
Veering away from the pop that defined his early work and leaning into folk rock reminiscent of the Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men, Mendes has, five albums into his career, managed to carve out a sound that really suits him. Whether it’s mourning the loss of a childhood friend on the 1970s-inspired soft-rock ballad “Heart of Gold” or closing the album with a gentle cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Mendes is fully in his element here.
Mendes has finally learned what it means to be enough. “I’m still changing/My friends stay patient/My mother still calls for the news/Isn’t that enough?” he asks on “Isn’t That Enough.” Self-actualization is a lifelong process, and Mendes has figured out how to turn it into art.
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