Justin Bieber - My World Review

Within a couple years, Canadian teenager Justin Bieber went from covering Usher on YouTube to working with Usher. An internet sensation from his renditions of several pop and pop-oriented R&B hits, he was still only 15 years old when he released this, his first album -- though it's more like an EP since it is contains only seven songs that are 25 minutes in duration. Given the comfort level he showed in the material he covered, My World plays it straight, based on the kind of age-appropriate content that would fill out a release from a younger Chris Brown or a junior version of Ne-Yo. Members of the Clutch, Midi Mafia, “Tricky” Stewart, Usher, and a handful of other notable producers and songwriters grant Bieber a set of songs that isn't quite top-level quality, but the singer more than gets by on his squeaky-clean charm and natural ability....full text In 1986 Bob Dylan collaborated with Kurtis Blow on “Street Rock,” undoubtedly sending both hip-hop fans and Dylanologists lunging for the fast-forward button. Both parties will be relieved to know that Mr. Dylan has not collaborated with Juelz Santana on “Mixing Up the Medicine,” his virtuoso new single produced by Kane Beatz. As usual, Juelz Santana, the Harlem rap star, finds new high-life metaphors — “I’m ballin’ like the ’80s/I’m so James Worthy” — and flexes sharp internal rhymes: “You wanna get loud? You’ll get blasted/Boombox/Attitude like Tupac when ‘Juice’ dropped.” Doing the nasal Dylan impression on the hook, which turns “Subterranean Homesick Blues” more druggy, is YelaWolf, a white rapper from Alabama with a classic rock jones and a glorious, tinny drawl, as heard on last year’s mixtape “Stereo.” On his forthcoming mixtape, “Trunk Muzik,” he boasts, “Trashed off the glue you build an airplane model with/In the gutter like an empty PBR bottle is.”...full text I was a player when I was little,'' Bieber admits on his debut album. ''But I'm bigger.'' Though not much. At 15, this pint-size Canadian crooner is still more than a decade younger than Usher and Justin Timberlake, both of whom offered the singer record deals based on his hit YouTube channel. (Usher won.) Not surprisingly, My World is long on sugary puppy-love ballads and dinky dance-pop confections; diabetics are advised to stay away. Bieber's better on ''Love Me,'' where he riffs on the Cardigans' ''Lovefool'' atop a killer electro-glam groove. Here's hoping his swagger grows with age. B-...full text