Toronto teen Shawn Mendes achieved a No 1 EP on iTunes the millennial way – by covering six seconds of a Justin Bieber song on the micro-video platform Vine. Once he’d acquired thousands of followers, a record deal materialised, and now, age 16, he’s releasing his debut album. It’s usually challenging to detect much difference between Bieber and the social-media stars who’ve followed him, but Mendes, to his credit, steers clear of bleached-out Bieberean R&B. His songs incline toward acousticky sincerity – even moroseness – and if the sentiments are typically teenage (“You don’t have to be a babe, because we’re all the same,” is his advice on A Little Too Much to a girl struggling to meet expectations), he conveys them with an adult vehemence. On the downtempo piano/guitar ballad Life of the Party, his delivery makes him a ringer for Ed Sheeran, which is probably the point. At 16, Mendes isn’t the artist he’ll be at 25, but he’s made a persuasive start – the adult-pop big league could yet be his.
