Newly 18-year-old Shawn Mendes just released his second album, Illuminate, after rising to fame three years ago on the popular app Vine. His seven-second covers quickly captured an attentive audience and rose in popularity, which led to his place on the charts. His brand of music focuses on the nice, innocent guy that plays the guitar. While this trope has been seen time after time throughout the history of pop music, Mendes actually seems genuine through his lyrics.
Illuminate begins with the soulful song “Ruin,” which showcases Mendes’ impressive vocal range, and serves as an excellent hook into the album. His formula of simple hooks that lead into explosive choruses is exemplified several times throughout the album, but is done in a skillful manner that doesn’t seem boring. While his lyrics can be rather weak at times, his guitar and other supportive instruments help hold it together. “Treat You Better,” the third track from Illuminate, falls flat compared to the other songs on the album, despite it being released as a single before the album’s release date. It just feels like another generic pop anthem, and misses out on the soul that Shawn Mendes puts into his other songs.
Despite being another young male in the pop industry that sings love songs, Mendes sets himself apart from the rest of the crowd by fitting the niche of the young man and his guitar, and his lyrics, while weak at times, are actually respectful towards women compared to many other artists that utilize less than savory wording to describe their objects of affection. This can be further heard in “Lights On.” In this track, Mendes belts out how beautiful the girl of his desires is, but mentions how he still wants to remain respectful, and while the song is about physical intimacy, it is done in a tasteful manner.
“Understand,” the last song of the album, is refreshingly different. Despite following the typical Mendes formula of a simple hook that leads into an expressive chorus, the song breaks down halfway through, where Shawn himself performs a type of spoken word mixed with a sort of inspirational talk. Here, he addresses how people change, and how that’s okay. It’s endearing to get a philosophical lesson from the 18-year-old, but it’s done in a manner that can be appreciated, instead of laughed at. Overall, Illuminate is a strong sophomore album by the young Canadian artist, but there is still plenty of room for growth. If Shawn Mendes continues to work on his lyricism and improve and involve his music, he will likely become even more popular, and more successful overall.
