Justin Bieber – Believe Acoustic (2013)

Justin Bieber had more than one trick up his sleeve, it seems. Having already done acoustic material and acoustic-based albums beforehand, it made perfect sense to deliver this unique acoustic and piano-based album, Believe Acoustic. Ideally, this is a perfect fit for Justin Bieber’s unique voice.

Does it sound good though? Let’s find out.

We begin with Boyfriend – Acoustic Version. It should be noted that Justin Bieber was playing an acoustic guitar in the original Boyfriend video. Still, this is a surprisingly good listen. It sounds as though it was not simply cut and pasted onto acoustic guitars, and that it was done specifically for this song. In short, a good listen and twist on the original version of the song. Simple and beautiful.

Next is As Long As You Love Me –  Acoustic Version which sounds different, in a good way. The acoustic guitar here covers the song wonderfully, and Justin Bieber’s singing is excellent. It’s interesting for Justin Bieber to cover all the vocal parts here, he is in a league of his own. He really does fantastically here, and it is a reassuringly good listen.

Beauty and A Beat – Acoustic Version is a great rendition of the original song and the singing and acoustic guitar fill out all the necessary sounds in the song. It’s really great to hear an interesting composition of it. Short and sweet.

She Don’t Like The Lights – Acoustic Version is once again, a great rendition of the original song. It’s rather fast and pacing acoustic guitar playing and Justin Bieber’s singing fits very well here. It’s a fresh and inspiring approach to the original song. Enjoyable listening. It sounds very different from the album version. Some frenetic acoustic guitar playing ends this very well.

The next cut Take You – Acoustic Version is merely expanding on the album version, which had acoustic guitars in parts of it. The acoustic guitar riffs propel this along. Very good to listen to, it’s fresh and inspired. A beautiful approach to the acoustic version.

Next is Be Alright – Acoustic Version. This was already an acoustic guitar-based rendition on the Believe album, so this time we have Justin Bieber with piano. It’s simple, different, and beautiful. A great composition piece, and shows that Justin Bieber does have a great musical ear himself.

All Around The World – Acoustic Version shows beauty whereas the original version was more sonic based. It has a great sonic quality in its own way about it with the frenetic acoustic guitar playing and Justin Bieber’s reassuring voice. A nice effort here.

Fall – Live starts off with some capo added strummed acoustic guitars. It’s a refreshing listen, and very touching. Beautiful and great listen, words don’t describe the way that this album is done, and a song like this. Unique and very personal sounding.

Following that, we have Yellow Raincoat. This is simply a good addition, not being on any version of the Believe album. It’s a good listen. It’s straightforward and decent to hear, although its not as good as some of the other songs here. Still listenable though. It fades out gently and nicely.

Next up is I Would. It’s not an acoustic version in the strictest sense. It has some effect treated electric guitar and a well-crafted drum loop. It’s good to hear nonetheless. Rather poppy and interesting to hear regardless, not everything on this album is acoustic. Good stuff. A beautiful string section adds a good flavour to the mix.

Nothing Like Us – Bonus Track is the last track here, and is very emotional sounding. It’s Justin Bieber with a sad sounding piano part. It’s a deep and meaningful sort of song, almost enough to get teary about. A good way to end this album.

This is certainly different. It’s a good recording of a more stripped back instrumentation based approach for Justin Bieber. Let’s hope that he can do more things like this in the future. Worth hearing if you are a fan of Justin Bieber and you find his mainly electronic music based recordings too much to handle.

8/10