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.
