There’s a fun little piece of production sleight of hand going on in this track. Notice how, towards the end of the prechorus the drums start to develop a roomier sound and the cymbals begin to open out in a classic “here comes the chorus!” build up. Have a listen: play_arrow | get_app Crucially, though, I’ve deliberately stopped that audio file right before the chorus downbeat. So just close your eyes for a moment and imagine what you think the chorus entry should sound like, based on that preamble. Got that sound in your mind? Great!

And now listen to what it actually sounds like: play_arrow | get_app I don’t know about you, but I’d have imagined some kind of indie-rock overdriven guitar texture, as a contrast to the cleaner, tighter band texture of the verses. But in reality, it’s only the drum sound that really opens out at all here, wheras the guitars remain pretty clean and restrained, with only a hint of overdrive and very little upper-spectrum energy at all to speak of. Effectively, this production is doing its best to present the illusion of rock chorus dynamics, except without the guitars!

But why the smoke and mirrors? Well, it strikes me that The Bieb’s breathy vocal tone wouldn’t fare very well against the masking from a bunch of distorted guitars. For all the tats, he’s fundamentally a pop vocalist, not a rock vocalist, so until he changes the way he sings, something else has to give.