“Sounds from another time & world”: Shawn Mendes' 'Wonder' is here

rambo | December 4, 2020 |
m_shawnmendeswonder_093020-3
m_shawnmendeswonder_093020-3

Island RecordsWonder, the fourth album by Shawn Mendes, has arrived, and on Instagram, he says making the record taught him some important life lessons.

“I sincerely hope you love this album even half as much as I do,” Shawn wrote. “Wonder taught me freedom & how to surrender to the magic of art. Songs from the heart & sounds from another time and world.”

You’ve heard the album’s title track and the Justin Bieber collabo “Monster,” but if you watched Shawn’s Netflix documentary In Wonder, you got a preview the songs “Always Been You,” “Teach Me How to Love” and “Look Up at the Stars.”  But there are also moments in the film that give context to some of the album’s lyrics.

For example, at one point in the film, Shawn talks wistfully about wainting to see his friends and smoke a joint, so when you hear him sing “I should call my friends and go get high” on the song “Call My Friends”, it’s no surprise.

In another scene, Shawn says that he and girlfriend Camila Cabello are spending the summer living together in a New York City apartment.  So when you hear him sing “New York in the summertime/Getting close with a bottle of wine” in the song “Higher,” you can guess what he’s referring to.

In a Netflix Q&A on Thursday, Shawn said of In Wonder, “When you’re capturing someone at 20 years old…you can capture the birth of an adult.”

“It could have been about success. It could have been about fame,” he added. “But I felt like it was really more so just about a 20-year-old guy who happens to be a famous musician, y’know?”

Shawn revealed yesterday that he’s spending Christmas at home in Pickering, Ontario with Camila and their new puppy.

 

 

By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.