Justin Bieber’s Butterflies: A Surprise Hit from a New Dad

Much to my surprise, I opened up my Spotify to find a new Bieber record. His new record Swag dropped like its plain black cover…without any of the usual Bieber fanfare. It has been four years since his last release Justice. Since then there was a global pandemic and his mass cancelling of concerts due to a rare facial paralysis condition that shocked the pop world. Add a new relationship and fatherhood, I thought that we might not hear from Bieber and he would fade away. Not so fast, a surprise 21 track record, which is one of his largest, has brought him back into pop hit conversation.

Before we look at one of the biggest singles, Butterflies, let’s have a quick word on the record on a whole. This is a very hit and miss record for me. There are killer tracks like Butterflies, Daisies and Way it Is mixed with tracks that have as much heart as the inside of an Apple Macbook…and a track about how much “black soul” he has even though he’s white???? Not sure about where some of these are headed, but the songs that hit really hit. Even though the record does not hit the highs of Purpose there are some fresh ideas on this record.

The first refreshing thing is that Butterflies sounds like its recorded in an actual studio. Don’t get me wrong, Bieber has a couple tracks with piano and acoustic guitar on Justice, but they always seemed too clean. Bieber has always done well with a simple piano, but a lot of those tracks on Justice felt like they could be recorded anywhere…a studio…his room…the moon…they lacked texture. Butterflies does a great job integrating guitar and drums with more traditional electro 4/4 hip hop beats. There is also a synth and vocal to it that gives the track a beach vibe. Above all else, I can envision Bieber recording this track in an actual place with a mic and not some digital garble put together over Snapchat.

Lyrically, this track follows some themes brought up on Purpose, but with more maturity. Bieber has always hit out a the paparazzi and the haters, which he does here “You just want money…that’s all you want / you don’t care about humans.” However, there is a more mature focus here. In the past, he would talk about how the money didn’t matter in a sort of surface level fake humility that comes from someone who was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In Butterflies that message is more grounded in family and love. It is not that money means nothing, but if he gets caught up in chasing money he loses sight on what is really important and is “slipping away” from what his focus should be. This is a far more mature theme and is far more relatable than his brash earlier work.

Fatherhood is life changing. No longer are your decisions about you, but now they impact innocent children who you are responsible for. Some people find this too much to handle and shut down. Now, I’m not saying Bieber is father of the year…I have no idea…but fatherhood has definitely influenced his music. For the better. This older Bieber is more grounded and less brash, but still has that glittery vocal that made him famous.

Listen to Butterflies