Justin Bieber’s ‘Swag II’: All 23 Tracks Ranked

Swag, swag, swag… on II. The suddenly very prolific pop superstar Justin Bieber announced over social media on Thursday (Sept. 4) that midnight would bring with it the surprise sequel to his equally unexpected Swag album from July. Midnight came and went without the suddenly highly anticipated release, but just around 3:30 a.m. ET, the set appeared on YouTube, trickling to other DSPs shortly after. Swag II was now officially with us.

The 23-track set follows in the organic-sounding, warm-feeling alt-R&B mode of the first Swag, with many of the same sonic architects (Dijon, Carter Lang, Mk.gee), and even a couple overlapping feature guests in Lil B and Eddie Benjamin. New to the Swag is Afrobeats star Tems, British singer-songwriter Bakar and ’00s Louisiana rapper Hurricane Chris. But no skits this time — Druski makes nary an appearance across the set, although “I’m not the one” and “It’s not clocking to you” references are both made in the album’s lyrics. And the blockbuster sequel closes with the longest Bieber album cut to date: “Story of God,” a nearly eight-minute spoken-word retelling of the Adam and Eve story, with Justin narrating as Adam.

Ultimately, the set will unquestionably be worth the wait for Beliebers, who now have a whopping 44 tracks’ worth of Swag to keep them cuddly in the cold-weather months that lie ahead. And with Bieber’s sneaky productivity of late, who knows if there might even be a third Swagstallment still waiting in the wings. Until then, though, here’s our early ranking of the 23 tracks new to Swag II.