Hello, I'm Laura Ingraham, and today I'm going to be reviewing Justin Bieber's 2015 studio album Purpose. So, I said in my review of Journals that I own that compilation on vinyl. That wouldn't be the case if it wasn't for Purpose. It all started when I heard the song Sorry on the radio. I looked up some of the lyrics to see what the song was, and to my surprise, it was a Justin Bieber song. Intrigued, I went to check out the album. When I was done listening to it, I heard about Journals, and went to check it out too. That was the day I became a Justin Bieber apologist. In other words, if it wasn't for Purpose, I would not be covering Justin Bieber right now. Which leads us to the question: is this album any good? Well, I own it on vinyl if that tells you anything. In fact, I've probably spun it more times than I have Journals. My favorite thing about this album, musically speaking, is the elements of tropical house and future bass mixed into it. I'm not overly familiar with electronic music, but I like how it sounds here. The song What Do You Mean is a tropical house track that's just danceable enough to be fun, but not so bright and happy that it drowns out the confusion in the lyrics. On the future bass side of things, there's Where Are U Now, which has one of the most unique drops I've ever heard with a really catchy flute riff, and I'll Show You, which does the drop right in the middle of the chorus and still manages to sound epic. The other thing I love about this album is that Justin Bieber is such an asshole on it. This may not sound like a compliment, but think about it. Before this album came out, Justin was in the news for drag racing and egging a person's house among other terrible things. For years, Justin pretended to be a nice guy in his music while being a complete dick in real life. Here, on songs like the simple acoustic ballad Love Yourself, he pulls the mask away and straight up tells his ex to go fuck herself. That's just the songs where he's aggressively spiteful, though. There are plenty of more passive-aggressive songs on here that are just as awesome. Take for instance the song Sorry, where Justin gives one of the most awesomely sarcastic apologies ever over some of Skrillex's best production to date. Or the song No Pressure, a relaxing R&B track featuring Big Sean that has Justin Bieber trying to guilt trip a girl into dating him. These songs would be insufferable if young Justin Bieber or just about anyone else performed them, but when post-bad boy Justin Bieber performs them, I get a sense of grim satisfaction. Of course, Justin couldn't keep up his asshole persona for the entire album. There are a couple songs here that are just nice love songs, and even they're pretty good. Company has one of the most gorgeous combinations of music and lyrics I've ever heard. No Sense featuring Travis Scott is the kind of creeping trap song I would normally hate, but it actually fits Justin's voice surprisingly well. A lot of people seem to hate The Feeling featuring Halsey, but I think it does a good job being bouncy and smooth at the same time. Oh, and Halsey sounds great on it. Despite my love for this album, there are a couple songs that aren't as good. Mark My Words is a decent enough opener, but it's a bit too short and should probably have been fleshed out more. Children is a cheesy call to activism, but the instrumentation is extremely catchy and fun, so I can't hate it. Some may expect me to hate the closing track Purpose since it does sound like a contemporary Christian song, but I can't hate it. It's just passive-aggressive enough to be kind of funny. If you want a song that sounds like a contemporary Christian song on this album that I do hate, look no further than Life Is Worth Living. Here, Justin tries to be inspirational over dull pianos and it doesn't stick the landing. All the passive-aggressiveness is gone, and what we're stuck with is a slog. Overall, this is probably my favorite Justin Bieber project (at least so far - I don't want to spoil my future reviews). If it wasn't framed as his redemption album and was just about him being an asshole, I'd probably give it a ten, but as it is, I give it a solid 9/10. If you're new to Justin Bieber, this album is a good place to start. If you're already a fan, check this out if you haven't, and if you have, give it a relisten. It's fantastic.