Shawn Mendes is a force of nature. After a few years of selling out stadiums, churning out hit after hit, and quickly climbing to the tops of charts, Mendes clearly feels he’s ready to take a step back and show us that he’s ready to come into his own.
His fourth album, Wonder (★★☆☆☆) is designed to be his big coming-of-age moment.It’s not. What is meant to be the 22-year-old Canadian’s step into creative maturity feels like somewhat of a mess.
Mendes appears to be going for a more relaxed vibe on most of the album’s tracks, but he rarely bothers to do much to make them interesting.
What we’re left with is a collection of songs that might be fine as filler on someone’s chill vibes playlist, but taken together are so chill they’re best.
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