Following almost four years of leaving his fans famished, both for his appearance, which more and more seems like a bygone era, and for fresh music.
Justin Bieber, 31, played a surprise. With little warning, he released an unexpected album called Swag, cramming in a whopping 21 songs just a couple of hours after the announcement.
It's obvious Bieber took major influence from his wife Hailey Bieber, 28, since she appears on several tracks. In Go Baby, he croons, "that's my baby/she's iconic/iPhone case/lip gloss on it."
On Walking Away, there's the revealing line: "and girl we better stop before we say some s**t/we've been testing our patience/i think we better off if we just take a break/and remember what grace is."
Then there is Daisies with: "throwin' petals like do you love me or not?/head is spinnin' and it don't know when to stop/you said forever babe did you mean it or not?"
The references are just so obvious, it's hard to ignore them, no sleuthing required here.
Rather than winning over people for using Hailey as his muse once again, responses online have been mostly cynical and scathing. Fans appear to be turned off by what they perceive as shallow, emotionless writing.
Comments pouring in on social sites are: "How toxic relationship it is ?", "Yikes. May a 'love' like this never find me", "He gaslights tf out of her. Yikes", "oh so romantic #not", "They are making me nauseous", "The loneliest couple in the US", "I got so annoyed from this relationship its so messy and miserable", and "Is this (lyrics) supposed to be romantic? Is it romantic to you guys? Lol".
Others commented, "Now can't feel the love even more… it's just the lines someone who doesn't wanna be left ALONE says to another….
The dissatisfaction is not just personal; musically too, fans are trashing the album. Some of the reactions: "Lyrics sound like written by a 10 year old.", "I don't care about them relationships and wish them all the best. But we should agree album is boriiing", "Most of so called songs just two notes three repetitive words", "The album is trash ????", "do people really think this is good", "I listened to the album. it's so bad. He used to SING, what is this too tuned mess…", and "This sounds like he let her write it lol".
There's also a growing suspicion that Justin's recent erratic social media antics and sometimes cringe-inducing public appearances were all a deliberate PR stunt in the lead-up to Swag.
Although that theory seems a stretch, it's certainly the case that Bieber has a history of acting ambivalent, even contemptuous, about Hailey.
Whether it was crashing her Vogue moment telling her he'd once told her she'd never get it, or just generally acting like she wasn't there, their relationship has hardly ever shouted "soulmates" in public.
Nevertheless, Hailey has remained firm behind him, occasionally in silence, occasionally with bite. As recently as last week, she posted Bieber's album reveal on her Instagram stories with a caption that lashed back at his detractors: "Is it finally clocking to you f**king losers?" hardly the gentle touch required to soothe an already tense fanbase.
