You know that feeling when you’re up late at night, and it’s raining so hard you just can’t go to sleep? That feeling when you really need to sneeze but just can’t for some reason? That feeling when you really want to listen to something other than your go-to playlist? That feeling when there’s something holding you back? Well, thanks to Shawn Mendes’ new third album, you get a dive into his most honest music ever, filled with songs of romance and songs about real issues to keep you from ever having anything holding you back.

Released on May 25, 2018, Shawn Mendes’s new self-titled third album makes you really wonder about what’s going on inside his mind. Most of the songs are about love, but then there’s the occasional song about issues that are going on in the world around him. This Canadian pop-singer goes deep into his own heart and mind to figure out what’s really important to himself and to his fans. His emotion and powerful vocals transport listeners into his self-dissection to find out what makes him tick. Unlike his last two albums, Handwritten and Illuminate, Shawn Mendes has a more melancholy feeling, sending his fans to a part of his mind they’ve only had a glimpse of.

In his songs “Mutual” and “Queen,” you get a taste of his last two albums, with upbeat, sing-along lyrics that make you want to put them on repeat. “Mutual,” is about Shawn’s frustration in figuring out whether or not this girl likes him back. He says, “I need to know/ if this is mutual/ before I go/ and get with you involved/ I want you bad/ can you reciprocate/ no I don’t want to have to leave/ but half of you’s not enough for me.” He seems like he’s getting angry at himself for falling for a girl who confuses him by sending him mixed signals. Following as a close second as the most upbeat songs, “Queen”, is about how he’s in this situation where this girl pretends as if she doesn’t know him, since she thinks he isn’t cool enough for her. He says, “who crowned you/ Queen of you/ think you’re too cool/ making beautiful look ugly/ you ain’t the ruler of no country.../ you treat me like I got nothing on you.../” This girl seems to look right through Shawn as if he doesn’t exist. Both songs show Shawn’s confidence in his music by showing off his vocals almost right away. The songs open with an acoustic guitar and transition into his voice, carefully and almost sneakily adding an electric guitar as the songs reach their climax.  Both are brilliantly constructed and will most definitely be a favorite among Shawn’s many fans.

In his first album, “Handwritten”, you get a taste of how his next two albums will be. There are songs that are mostly upbeat, but there’s the occasional song about how he’s feeling, and about things going on around him, just like “Shawn Mendes”. If people listen to the beat and the tempo of his songs, they’ll be immediately hooked, but if they listen closer, they’ll recognize important lyrics that break hearts while being listened to. In his song, “In My Blood”, Shawn talks about his own personal anxiety as if the song won’t be shown to the world. He sings, “Help me/ it’s like walls are caving in/ sometimes I feel like giving up but I just can’t/ it isn’t in my blood”. His worries and problems aren’t stated outright in the song, but listeners can tell he’s going through some tough times. He goes on to sing, “sometimes I feel like giving up/ no medicine is strong enough/ someone help me/ I’m crawling in my skin...”. The amount of emotion he put into this song is beautiful, and is sure to turn on the waterworks for his many fans. Another song that will tug heartstrings is, “Youth.” He wrote this song in dedication to the shooting in Manchester, encouraging people to not worry, and that everything will be okay. He sings, “waking up to headlines/filled with devastation again/ my heart is broken/ but I keep going.” He references the time when he saw on the news that yet another shooting happened, so he wanted to do something about it through one of the only ways he knew how: music. He goes on to sing, “you can’t take my youth away/ this soul of mine will never break/ as long as I wake up today/ you can’t take my youth away”. Shawn brilliantly sings alongside Khalid, creating the real “youth” image. Both songs are melancholy and are about serious issues in our society right now. Shawn shows off his vocals in these songs and he really tries to get through to his listeners. He tries to make his listeners understand.

Shawn Mendes put his heart and soul into his most recent album, and listeners will feel the emotions through his songs. It’s as if every single song is a part of him as a whole, and all of them together create Shawn Mendes.