Shawn Mendes searches his soul with a gentle touch on ‘Shawn’

Shawn Mendes canceled his 2022 world tour to take a mental health break.
He wanted time to find himself, an understandable need for a sensitive guy who found worldwide fame early in life.
On his fifth studio album, “Shawn,” the title is the first indicator that these new songs will penetrate many an emotion, as Mendes still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. But that’s OK, because his soul-searching is what makes the album the quiet highlight of the 26-year-old’s career so far.
“Everything’s hard to explain out loud … ‘Cause I don’t really know who I am right now,” Mendes sings with an unspoken sigh on the rootsy album opener, “Who I Am.”
The dozen songs, including a dutifully reverent cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” are unadorned in language and production, with all of the material glowing with an amber hue and most giving a nod to Laurel Canyon-era folk-pop.
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Mendes was launched back into gossip headlines recently because of a lyric in “The Mountain,” which he unveiled live in October.
“You can say I’m too young/you can say I’m too old/You can say I like girls or boys/Whatever fits your mold,” he sings, while other parse the meaning of the lyric in regard to Mendes’ sexuality. At a performance in October, he told fans: “Sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes. It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover. … The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times. And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that.”
Surely Mendes knew the line would spark tongue-wagging the same as “Thought I was about to be a father/shook me to the core” from “Why Why Why,” its nursery-rhyme cadence contradicting a lyrical land of confusion.
The ragged “Heavy,” a showcase for the raspier side of Mendes’ voice, and even “Hallelujah,” an over-covered song that nonetheless fits the pensive tenor of “Shawn,” demonstrate the authenticity of his mission to explore his maturing mind.
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But the two best tracks on the album highlight Mendes’ evolution as a songwriter – he co-wrote all of the songs on “Shawn” save the Cohen classic – and the velvety sheen of his voice.
“That’s the Dream,” with a shuffle beat straight out of the greatest country hits of the ‘90s, is efficient pining. “I know we made our promises, but promises are hard to keep/But why’d I have to go and leave when I know nothing good comes easily,” Mendes sings over lap steel guitar.
The song is speckled with strings and sweet harmonies, making Mendes’ hopes sound as romantic as they are ambitious.
On “Heart of Gold,” written about a childhood friend who died, Mendes appoints a ‘70s soft rock vibe to the affecting song. Both about finding beauty in grieving and paying tribute to a tender soul (“You had a heart of gold/You left too soon/It was out of your control”), “Heart” beats with sensitivity and a gentle touch, prime illustrations of Mendes’ superpowers.