After last summer's BRAT attack, it felt like minimalist album art was back with a bang (for better or for worse). While I'm all for the rise of anti-design, there's a stark difference between counter-cultural creations and plain underwhelming art, and sadly, pop star Justin Bieber's latest album fits into the latter category.
Swag II, the successor of Bieber's recent album, Swag, features a painfully innocuous album cover that's undoubtedly functional but disappointingly flat. Do I think the best album covers need to be gaudy? No. But please, Justin, give us something.
Bieber's colossal 44-track album features a plain millennial pink cover bearing the 'SWAG II' title in modern serif font. In tandem with the album, Bieb's brand SKYLRK released a "cloudy pink" capsule collection with equally minimalist designs – it's no BRAT green, but at least it's staying cohesive.
To commemorate the album Bieber painted the world pink, with pop-ups all around the world, from Paris to Singapore. The album's low-key visuals are paired with candid shots of the singer with his family, pointing to a more heartfelt, domestic era for the Biebs. With its predecessor, Swag, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 mere months ago, the new album already seems set to follow in its tracks, with fans flooding the singer with praise over the new announcement.
Recently, we've been in a strange era for album cover design after Sabrina Carpenter's controversial Man's Best Friend album art was criticised for being too raunchy for general audiences. With new album releases like Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl proving that traditional album art is still alive and well, J Bieb's minimalist design is merely embracing the other side of the creative spectrum.
