"Yummy" and the fall of Justin Bieber

Photo courtesy of Def Jam

Justin Bieber has had one of the most tumultuous careers in modern mainstream pop music. His transition from derided teen-pop sensation, known mostly at this time for the infuriatingly annoying "Baby" to the serious musician portrayed on the much better "Purpose" has been very far from smooth, however, he was finally in a clear musical place after "Purpose". Sure, he still did not really have a signature sound, but his music was much better received, and he scored some of the biggest hits of his career in "What Do You Mean?", "Sorry", and "Love Yourself".

Since then, he's been at the forefront of several controversies but has left a strong impression in the music sphere thanks to his series of successful features and one-offs, including "Cold Water" with Major Lazer and MØ, "Let Me Love You" with DJ Snake, "Despacito" with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, "I'm the One" with DJ Khaled, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne, "Friends" with BloodPop, "2U" with David Guetta, "No Brainer" with DJ Khaled, Chance the Rapper, and Quavo, "I Don't Care" with Ed Sheeran, and "10,000 Hours" with Dan + Shay. While the reception of these songs critically and artistically was a bit over the map, all of these songs were a success, all landing within the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, generating massive anticipation for the return of solo Justin Bieber music.

Enter "Yummy".

"Yummy" is mostly trap-pop song with some elements of R&B, a major transition from the mostly dance-pop "Purpose". It is trend-chasing in all of the worst ways: it does not match the image he has been trying to cultivate this era, it does not fit with his voice whatsoever, and there really just is not anything fundamentally interesting about the song whatsoever.

He has been married to Hailey Baldwin since late September of 2019 after getting engaged back in July of 2018, he has been turning more and more to his religious faith to guide him through life, and he has been staying out of legal trouble more than ever, which gave many the impression that he would be doing a musical style to match it. The complete disconnect from his cultivated public image to "Yummy" is incredibly jarring, as "Yummy" sounds much more immature, juvenile, and gross than any of these individual factors may suggest. While transitions of musical styles throughout artists' careers should be celebrated and applauded, they should also fundamentally make sense.

This factor could perhaps be overlooked if the song at hand was fitting for him and actually good. However, "Yummy" somehow instead manages to be one of the worst singles he has put out in his entire career. His vocal delivery sounds bored and disconnected, it seems like he would rather be anywhere else doing anything else. None of the lyrics really seem to even mean anything when looked at as a whole, rather just a random string of compliments towards Hailey and brags about how rich they are. The hook is perhaps the worst of this all, which is mostly just repeating the word "yummy" over and over again. It is not catchy and it is not endearing, it is infuriating and annoying.

The verses, while still lyrically completely nonsensical, are the one somewhat salvageable part of the song, thanks to an ever so slightly more energized delivery and a few catchy lines. However, those factors alone are not nearly enough to save this complete trainwreck of a song.

The public reception to "Yummy" so far seems similarly poor, with weak debuts on Spotify and Apple Music compared even to his recent Dan + Shay feature "10,000 Hours", a much smaller lead on iTunes than typical, and only 9 million day 1 YouTube streams on the video. Currently, it is only tracking to debut at 5, which would make it his lowest charting lead single since his musical debut "One Time", as well as his lowest charting single as a lead artist since 2016's "Company", and before that 2015's "Where Are U Now". If it dips any lower than 5, it will also even manage to be lower than the relatively disappointing (though still successful) performance of "No Brainer" in 2018. It is also entirely possible that "10,000 Hours" is higher on the charts than "Yummy" this week, which would be colossally disappointing.

It is really obvious that "Yummy" was written and churned out to try and become a hit. There is no other explanation for why six people would decide to attach their names as writers on such an idiotic song about absolutely nothing and not say anything to prevent it from happening. It is a soulless endeavor, and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Hopefully better is being saved for the album, but it is hard to be optimistic, considering Bieber's best work is usually his singles.

The question must be raised then: what comes next? He already put out a trailer for the album that "Yummy" is intended to be attached to, and announced a pretty ambitious stadium/arena tour in the US for summer 2020. He is likely in too far deep with this era to course correct. They can try to paint "Yummy" as a one-off buzz single, but with the massive initial radio push and hyper public awareness of the song, its likely to be taken to be the lead single regardless. With public reception in the drains and no way back, it looks like the next album could be a major step down from Justin Bieber's typical commercial performance. Best case scenario: this goes down as his "Man of the Woods" album era (by Justin Timberlake), where he later scores a minor sleeper hit and the tour is successful. However, if the album is chock full of "Yummy"'s, it could be hard for Justin Bieber to recover from this.

It also does not help that the promotion around "Yummy" has been...a tad gross. The single released was preceded by a gross trailer that featured an extended pan-in on two women's asses for no reason but gratuity and objectification. Since then, he has also posted 13 pictures of babies on Instagram all caption "yummy", which feels incredibly slimy considering that "yummy" is used in the song to refer to sexual desire. It is hard to see any of this promotion resonating well with people, the reception of the single is already in the toilet, and if he keeps going at this rate, he could be looking at straight-up career assassination.

And if his career is going to die, there is no worse song imaginable to kill it than "Yummy". It may have only been released on January 3, but it is hard to see how this does not go down as not only one of the worst songs of the year, but of the decade.