It’s official: The Biebs is back. As “Yummy,” the vocalist’s first original single since 2015’s Purpose exemplifies, Justin Bieber is appealing to similarly aligned pop palettes that he was five years prior. A mid-tempo flex of Bieber’s vocal silk, “Yummy” meshes Bieber’s established pop expertise with R&B inflection, and, as those initiated will note, sonically resembles Purpose inclusion, “Company.”
If “Company” showed Bieber’s possession of a certain sleek R&B sensibility, then “Yummy” is Bieber’s more frontal assertion of the same nature, with its verses as stark examples. Bieber’s alto approach has a distinctive R&B tint on “Yummy,” but beyond that, his lyrical delivery is poised, measured. The artist has enjoyed an extended hiatus from original productions, but one wouldn’t know it from “Yummy,” a release that finds Bieber playing to his commercial strengths with familiar ease.
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