This is the debut EP and first official musical effort from world famous Toronto singer, Shawn Mendes. He got his start on YouTube and Vine, singing covers, eventually growing to be the third most popular musician on Vine (RIP). This piqued the interest of the music industry. He got discovered and signed to Island Records and the rest is history. Here we are at his first EP and my thoughts on it are uh…meh. Forgive me if I sound pretentious, but from what I’ve heard of him, Shawn Mendes was just another pop singer on the radio and I was kind of expecting that I would get something like that, hoping for a surprise. I got what I expected…and I was bored. Now that I’m analyzing this EP, I can say I’m disappointed. That’s not to say that this whole EP is uninteresting, but it’s more than enough to make that assessment. It just seems too safe and gussied up to me. From production to composition to lyrics, it’s a Top 40 EP. It’s fun at points, but never satisfying. The best parts are where Shawn takes a bit of risk. But in that case, he just dips his toes in the water instead of diving into something more creative and interesting. You could do a lot worse, but you could do a lot better.
PRODUCTION
Production is fine, but for the most part uninteresting. The bass is a highlight, especially on Show You, taking a more prominent role. Drums on the other hand are absolutely buried in the mix. Acoustic guitars are prominent, but they sound very cold and soulless. Vocals are on top though, which is super important since it’s Shawn Mendes and his name’s on it. It sounds a little “overproduced” though. It really makes this EP sound inauthentic, despite Shawn and the instruments’ best efforts.
The effects have a bit going for them, but I feel they could use a little more oomph. There’s a bit of panning used particularly with the acoustic guitars, just hanging out in a corner somewhere on One of Those Nights and The Weight. Speaking of The Weight, I really like the reverb that they use on this record. I feel like it’s a callback to a pop production trick that has been used for at least as long as I’ve been alive: the echo fade out on the last syllable of a line. But I like this because it reminds me of those 2000s pop songs that I liked when I was a kid. Beyond that, it’s mono for 13 whole minutes, and as such, I find it stale, safe pop, which is a bit of a shame. This EP seems to want to stop anything that could maybe be interesting for the sake of commercial viability. Which is a shame given that somewhere in there, someone is trying.
COMPOSITION
This EP is pretty standard pop music when it comes to composition. The acoustic guitars are fine and it’s at least somewhat believable that this is a boy and his guitar with those jangly chords, despite the production’s best efforts to undermine that. Pianos on Life of The Party are very catchy and they’re played kind of hesitantly and shy, which is immediately undercut by the boring pop explosions in the chorus from basically everyone else. Drums are purely for timekeeping purposes and they just hide under what’s going on in the song, which is kind of boring. I feel like these instruments are more in service of Shawn Mendes rather than working together as individuals, all with something to bring to the table.
Like I’ve said before, it’s 13 minutes of safe pop music. There are very conventional song structures, which isn’t that much of a problem, I guess. You can make a good song with that kind of structure after all. The problem is that these songs are really lacking in anything that could set it apart from anyone else. It’s radio friendly, but at what cost? I wasn’t expecting much structure from the EP, as it’s just a taster of what Shawn can do, but I do appreciate The Weight bringing this record to a close. It’s like an EP sandwich, with the sad songs on the ends and the happy songs in the middle. I don’t know if this was done on purpose, since I feel like this EP is more focussing on the songs themselves instead of the project as a whole, but maybe. Still, this thing is full of cliches in its composition, whether good or bad. I can’t bring myself to entirely hate this record though.
LYRICS
On his first musical project with his name on it, Shawn Mendes shows up pretty well. His vocals are pretty good. He has the male, pop vocals down pat, but I can tell that this is indeed a person singing it. There are these little vocal ticks that are quite fitting with pop music, like the quiet falsetto on the high notes on the verses of Life of The Party. But what sets Shawn Mendes apart from the pack are these faster passages on Show You, for example. I was really not expecting them from someone like Shawn Mendes and his really hooky, bland singing patterns I heard on songs like Life of The Party! He doesn’t sound as fake or as polished as I had feared, and I feel like the dude was actually trying to make something good here.
The lyrics themselves are, say it with me now, 13 minutes of pop music. Of course, I wasn’t really expecting a theme or an overarching story to tell, nor is one truly necessarily here. However, I do feel like this song fits into a few tired cliches. You got the love song for the fangirls in Life of The Party, which is somber for some reason. You got the faster “I can do it” song in Show You. You got this awful party throwback to the 90s in One of Those Nights and you finally have the cheating song in The Weight. Can’t say I’m surprised, can’t say I’m impressed either. There are some cute, fun tracks in here like Show You and The Weight, but I still don’t feel truly satisfied when coming away from this EP. The storytelling is so basic, so hell bent on appealing to the lowest common denominator that I just feel disappointed from that lack of musical sustenance. It’s musical junk food: fun in moderation, but it’s best not to think too hard about it, since there’s not a lot of nutritional value. Call me pretentious, but I’m just not feeling it.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I want to absolutely loathe this EP, but I don’t feel like that’s the right angle to attack it on. Sure, the EP may be completely overproduced, nearly decimating any emotion this project has. Effects try at least a little. They sound a lot like a callback to 2000s era pop music. This is few and far between though, because it’s pretty mono throughout. This is not the kind of EP for you if you want something experimental. This is a safe pop EP through and through, but they do at least the bare minimum to make something good. The problem is that they are more focussed on being a backing band to Shawn Mendes instead of doing something interesting themselves. At least there’s structure to this EP, which keeps things balanced and interesting even with the cliches from song to song. Shawn Mendes himself carries his own EP. Especially with those faster vocal lines that came out of nowhere! As for what he’s singing about, it’s the same cliched themes. Sometimes this is executed pretty well, but I don’t feel satisfied. Even with all of that, I still can’t bring myself to hate this EP. It didn’t collapse on itself too hard and it shows that Shawn Mendes has potential to make something good, and that he did later on, or at least better than this. This EP isn’t terrible, it’s just 13 minutes of inconsistent meh. But there is potential.
I’m giving this one a Light 5/10.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: Show You, The Weight
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK: One of Those Nights
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