Justin Bieber ’s seventh album, SWAG, isn’t trying to win back radio—it’s trying to break the internet, one lo-fi voice memo at a time. Dropped with zero warning, the record drifts between hazy indie pop, cloud rap minimalism, and acoustic sketches that feel pulled straight from his iPhone notes app.
Don’t let the title fool you. SWAG isn’t some throwback to early-2010s neon and snapbacks. It’s dense, blown-out, and at times barely holding itself together. Bieber teams up with producers like Carter Lang and Eddie Benjamin to build foggy soundscapes full of reverb, tape hiss, and Mk.gee’s signature experimental guitar tones. The result is an album that leans into atmosphere over structure and emotion over perfection.
The features only deepen the strange. Gunna floats over cinematic synth pads on “Way It Is,” while Sexyy Red’s chaotic energy surprisingly fits into the ambient sprawl of “Put You On.” Then there’s “Dadz Love,” a spoken-word fever dream featuring Lil B and a single looped chord that stretches minimalism to its spiritual extreme.
Some tracks, like “Zuma House” and “Glory Voice Memo,” are barely produced at all—just raw ideas, mumbled vocals, and acoustic guitar. Instead of polishing the mess, Justin Bieber uploads it as-is. It’s vulnerable, maybe even risky, but it works.
Three comedic skits featuring Druski add another layer of surrealism, with lines like “Your skin white, but your soul black, Justin” somehow fitting right in with the record’s self-aware tone.
SWAG isn’t tidy, and it’s certainly not safe. But it’s Bieber at his most interesting—filterless, playful, and willing to get weird in public. It’s the sound of a global pop star letting go of the rules, embracing meme culture, and chasing a new kind of artistic freedom. Whether the world’s ready for it or not, Bieber’s already standing on business.
