My thoughts on Shawn Mendes’ debut album “Handwritten”

I decided to do something that I’ve never done before with my blog and review Shawn Mendes’ debut album Handwritten. I’m going to go right ahead and say that I’m definitely not an expert on singing or playing musical instruments. Admittedly, I’m a terrible singer and hell will freeze over a trillion times before I ever get an audition on American Idol or The Voice. I say this because I’ll be reviewing this album strictly from the standpoint of a listener; that being said, here are my thoughts on the album.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I think Handwritten is a great debut for Shawn Mendes with a lot of really great songs. My favorite song on the album without question is definitely “Stitches”. I probably would have started writing this review several days ago if I didn’t think that song was so addictive. Every time I start listening to it, I pretty much always want to listen to it on an endless loop. Personally, I think “Stitches” has a great beat to it, and I love the lyrics to the song. If I had to say what my second favorite song on the album is, it would definitely be “Something Big”. As far as I’m concerned, “Something Big” is the most unique sounding song on the entire album, especially when it comes to the overall beat of the song. “Something Big” really comes across as a hip-hop song to me. While most of the other songs have a pop sound to them, there are a few songs that remind me of country music.

“Crazy” is definitely another song that really stood out to me when I was listening to the album. I thought that Mendes did a great job with his singing for the song, and it’s an all-around great song. I feel like I should also mention that “Crazy” feels very reminiscent of Iron and Wine’s songs, and I’m a huge fan of his, which is a big part of why I like the song so much.

As much as I love this album, my least favorite song on the album is definitely “I Don’t Even Know Your Name”. For the record, I think the song starts out on a good note with great singing from Mendes and I love the instrumental accompaniment for the song. Unfortunately, I think Mendes’ singing for that particular song takes major turn for the worse about thirty seconds into the song and he just starts to sound like a drunk person singing karaoke for the rest of the song. Honestly, I think the only saving grace of that song is the instrumental aspect of the song. Another song that I thought was rather weak compared to the rest of the album was “The Weight”, but thankfully I don’t think it’s as bad as “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” is. What really brings that song down for me is that I think Mendes’ enunciation of the words “The Weight” is rather poor, which really hurts the song as a whole since it’s the name of the song and therefore those words are said quite a bit throughout the song. Honestly, I kept thinking that Mendes was singing the word “The Way” as I was listening to that song.

Maybe some people will disagree with my criticisms regarding “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” and “The Weight” or think that I’m being too harsh when it comes to my comments, but I feel that I should explain what my style and approach is when it comes to reviewing something. Whether it’s a TV show, book, or in this case an album, I consider my reviews to be a more polished and more organized version of the thoughts that I found myself thinking while I was watching, reading, or in this case listening to it. What I said about “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” and “The Weight” is simply what I’ve found myself thinking whenever I’ve listened to those particular songs.

For the record, I usually haven’t been a huge fan of acoustic versions of songs, especially when it comes to songs that I’m familiar with and like. I’m mentioning this because I thought that Mendes’ acoustic version of “Life of the Party” was a great way to close out the album. In some ways, I actually like the acoustic version of “Life of the Party” more than the original version of the song.

If I’m being honest, I think a fair amount of the songs on this album are either good, but not great, or simply average. However, it’s truly awesome songs like “Stitches”, “Never Be Alone”, “Something Big” and “Imagination” that really put this album over the top and makes it so memorable and enjoyable for me to listen to. “Handwritten” is definitely a great debut album for Shawn Mendes, and I’ll definitely continue to follow his music career in the future.

When it comes to how I determined my overall score for the album, what I did was give each individual song a score on a scale of 1 to 10, and my final score for the album is the average of the score for each song. That being said, here are my scores for each song as well as my brief thoughts on the songs:

1.    Life of the Party: 7 out of 10. A solid opening song for the album.

2.    Stitches: 16 out of 10. This song has an extremely catchy beat and great lyrics. I gave this song a 16 out of 10. Because it’s simply too awesome to just give it a score of 10 out of 10. It’s definitely the best song on the album.

3.    Never Be Alone: 8 out of 10. A nice slow song with a great instrumental accompaniment. I love the whistling sound that’s featured throughout the song.

4.    Kid in Love: 8 out of 10. A nice and enjoyable song.

5.    I Don’t Even Know Your Name: 2 out of 10. The song starts out great with a really good instrumental accompaniment and Shawn Mendes’ singing is great at the beginning, but he quickly starts sounding like a drunk person singing karaoke.

6.    Something Big. 10 out of 10. This song has a great beat. I love Shawn’s singing on this song. I think it’s perhaps the most unique sounding song on the album.

7.    Strings: 7 out of 10. I love Shawn’s fast singing on this song. This song also has a great beat.

8.    Aftertaste: 5 out of 10. A solid, but not outstanding song.

9.    Air (feat. Astrid): 5 out of 10. A solid and enjoyable song with nice vocals.

10. Crazy: 7 out of 10. A good song. It reminds me a lot of Iron and Wine’s songs.

11. A Little Too Much: 6 out 10. Great vocals and a nice instrumental accompaniment. However, I think this song is somewhat forgettable compared to the rest of the album.

12. This Is What It Takes: 7 out of 10. A good slow song with great singing from Shawn Mendes. I think this song is very memorable.

13. Bring It Back: 8 out of 10. I love the vocals and the instrumental accompaniment on this song.

14. Imagination: 9 out of 10. A consistently great song from beginning to end.

15. The Weight: 4 out of 10. A somewhat enjoyable song. However, I feel his enunciation on the words “The Weight” is rather poor, which really hurts the song as a whole since it’s the name of the song and therefore those words are said quite a bit throughout the song.

16. Life of the Party: 7.5 out of 10. A solid acoustic performance and a great way to close out the album.

Final score: 7.3