Boyfriend

The single most useful thing about shooping man-child Justin Bieber is that, at the age of 18, he has amassed the power to change the direction of pop music in a way that only an artist with 720,519,191 YouTube views can. The guy knows that 40 million Beliebers will follow him wherever he goes, and it’s with great personal pleasure that I confirm that on his second album, that place is Justin Timberlake’s penthouse, circa 2002. Yep, ‘Boyfriend’ is straight-up Justified-era Timbersnake, complete with floor-skimming intro, skyscraping chorus and smooth, Timbaland-esque beats. Daring? No, but in pop terms, Bieber might as well be strumming a lute and bodypopping to ‘Greensleeves’. Refreshing disregard for pop trends aside, I don’t hate ‘Boyfriend’. Except the bit where he makes reference to his own falsetto. Got news for you, Beebs. That’s my job.