Shawn Mendes found a lot of comfort releasing his fourth studio album Wonder, since it is “my favorite art that I’ve ever made in my life.”
The album features a total of 14 tracks, including hits like Teach Me How to Love, Always Been You, Look Up at the Stars and Can't Imagine.
Mendes expressed the motivations behind his album during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
He was quoted saying, "I know I really feel like I created an album that feels like freedom. I felt very free just making it. I felt like this is music that I love to listen to, this is music I want to hear, this is music I want to make and it's gorgeous for that reason."
He added, "The album is like a reflection of my life at the moment, or, rather, over the last six to seven months. I had a big moment of anxiety and fear, and I felt like I wasn't able to make music at the top of the year.
“And I think that was all coming from a place of fear, of people not liking the music I made, or fear of maybe not being able to make music better than I made in the past ... and it was kind of choking me as a songwriter."
Due to this, Mendes decided to give himself month "to kind of think about, figure out what was at the bottom of that. And I just went in with the thing of like, hey, this is it. I showed up, I'm here to make music, I'm here to make art, and if it happens in the best way, it does, and if it doesn't happen, then it doesn't."
He concluded by saying, "And ironically when I freed myself from that expectation, I think I started making my favorite art that I've ever made in my life."