0602557612493. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Shawn Mendes translated his Vine superstardom into genuine pop stardom in 2015 thanks to Stitches a lively piece of pop with a slightly soulful undercurrent. Wisely Mendes and his team decide to play off these soulful inclinations on Illuminate the album released almost 18 months after his 2015 debut Handwritten. This isn t to say that Mendes is a crooner nor is he riding anything resembling a funky groove. Instead Illuminate uses light R&B rhythms as a way to give a bit of grace and warmth the airiness of Ruin and Three Empty Words spinning heartbreak into seduction. As it turns out this wide-eyed puppy dog routine is the key to Mendes appeal. He s not forceful and whenever he slides into a loverman routine there s never a sense that he s a player: his voice is so small and sweet it feels as if he s whispering sweet nothings to his high school sweetheart. On Handwritten such quivering sensitivity seemed tentative but on Illuminate it has gelled into his pop persona; he s charming because he embraces his ordinariness. Sometimes on Illuminate the songs are a bit too diffuse to benefit from these qualities -- whenever they lack a hook or pronounced melody the tracks tend to drift -- but a lot of the record provides a good showcase for his tenderness. And these aren t necessarily ballads either. Certainly he feels at home on a nice slow-burning torch number like Don t Be a Fool -- an old-fashioned slice of swaying 60s soul -- but on the insistent pop of Treat You Better and sunny seaside vibes of Honest this boyishness is equally appealing and those sly shifts in tone are why Mendes comes into his own on Illuminate. [A 13-track edition of Illuminate was released in 2017.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Rovi