Shawn Mendes - Shawn Mendes (CD, 2018) Pop Album Feat. Julia Michaels & Khalid

Shawn Mendes Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine\nhttps://www.discogs.com/master/1369195-Shawn-Mendes-Shawn-Mendes\nPicking up the thread left dangling from 2016's Illuminate, Shawn Mendes decides to create an even more fashionable set of soulful pop on his eponymous 2018 album. Mendes remains a quivering adolescent presence -- he was still 19 years old when this album saw release -- but his self-titled record is assured and quietly confident in a way that suggests he has his adulthood on his mind. He doesn't abandon the soft-focus soul that turned \""Stitches\"" into a breakthrough smash, but he deepens his groove and polishes his surfaces, all the while concentrating on crafting sturdy songs. Never mind that the album gets off to a shaky start with \""In My Blood,\"" an anonymous arena rock number that suggests he equates playing rock to the rafters with real music, a notion that's dispelled by the remainder of the record. He builds Shawn Mendes on lithe, tuneful R&B numbers, hay