Single Review: ‘Confident’ by Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber AP FILE PHOTO

Despite all his recent run-ins with the law, and the seemingly endless list of controversies that surrounds this 19-year old Canadian Pop sensation, one thing though hasn’t changed for Justin Bieber. And that is his “good fortune” of releasing well-produced singles that appeal to a wide demographic of listeners. More importantly, his latest singles reflect Bieber’s own continuing musical growth as an artist.

What musical growth, you ask?

That musical growth I am alluding to is this: Bieber has made a smooth transition from singing about teenage crushes, falling in love, and house parties to more adult-themed matters.

And while I wouldn’t say this phase would not raise a few eyebrows along the way for some of his much younger listeners, his transition to more mature topics is approached in a manner that doesn’t sound too forced either in the way he sings about them.

This is another observation of his musical growth. The production value behind this single is an indication of his progress from “Bubble-Gum” Pop tunes to now more sophisticated R&B flavored singles.

Now, let us get to the review of this single.

“Confident” is the latest single to be released from Justin Bieber’s second compilation album ‘Journals’.

In “Confident”, Bieber continues his foray into the more adult-themed realm of mainstream music. You’ve got some racy lines here. But the suggestive lyrical content doesn’t go overboard.

Instead, Bieber does a decent job in making the listeners feel that he is, indeed, all grown up. His taste in women has changed as well.

It would be difficult to also not notice the quality of the vocal work of Bieber in “Confident” which comes across to me as that of the then young Justin Timberlake, post-*N’SYNC.

What is the overall meaning of this single?

Here, we get to hear Bieber describe his perfect image of woman–one who is oozing with self-confidence. She is the kind of woman who has everyone’s attention the moment she walks into a room.

Hey, Bieber just described what most of us guys are looking for in a woman!

In this single, Bieber is not alone as he is joined on board by Chicago native Chance The Rapper who does more than provide the mandatory verse. His guesting in “Confident” exhibits the lyrical precision of his Rap skills.

The choice of a guest artist is suited well with the production style of “Confident” which, more or less, resembles a smooth 90’s R&B track. To give you guys a more accurate description of how this single sounds like, think of how the production style of certain R.Kelly singles sounded back in the 90’s.

As I write this single review, I had no foreknowledge I would end up comparing Justin Bieber to another artist in the likes of arguably one of the biggest R&B stars of all time in R.Kelly!

In closing, and to raise one last observation, whether Bieber was trying to channel the likes of Justin Timberlake and R.Kelly in “Confident”, the listener’s interpretation will be quite subjective.

And as Justin Bieber has become one of the most polarizing artists we have today, so will his single “Confident” have the same effect on listeners.

Thumbs Up!