Wonder, Shawn Mendes’ newest and most experimental album was released on December 4, 2020. The top hit pop star took an adventurous turn with his new album, pulling in different styles such as “hip-thrusting R&B-lite, Beach Boys harmonics, and the occasional Tame Impala synth line” (pitchfork.com). Most negative reviews on the album stem from the incohesiveness of the songs. Mendes attempts to tackle many different styles of music in 40 minutes, leaving production and unity behind in some cases. Craig Jenkins from the Vulture argued that many songs, despite having genuine ideas behind them, “all come from the same place of pining deeply for a lover and seem more interested in selling the universality of that experience to the listener than expressing it in a manner unique to Mendes.”

 However, Darryl Perry, amongst others, feels that this album has been more genuine than most. After listening to the album, it is inevitable that Mendes is writing about love, and his romance with his girlfriend, Camila Cabello in many of his songs. He is also seen tackling the issue of growing up under the spotlight in the song “Monsters” featuring Justin Bieber, another artist who grew up in the public eye. 

Accompanying his album, Mendes released a documentary titled “Shawn Mendes: In Wonder” on Netflix. Similar to his album, the documentary has received mixed reviews. It is clear that Mendes was passionate about the documentary which displayed his childhood and best concert moments. The majority of the filming was done on tour last year for his fourth studio album, Shawn Mendes, in which Shawn allows himself to be vulnerable on camera (theknockturnal.com). Contrastingly, critics also said that the documentary lacked vulnerability and painted Mendes as “a cheerful pop star of a kind they don’t make so much anymore” (vulture.com). IMDB has so far rated this documentary a six out of ten stars, however, consider that the release of this media is still fairly new. 

With such varying opinions, it would be best to give Wonder a listen and the documentary a watch to decide for yourself if Mendes’ adventurous choices paid off.