#also if they look a bit crunchy or wonky. i made this while i was so very eepy jdhgkdhg

[pinkpixelpolygon]

some silly gifs i made thinking of this little interaction i had with @dimensional-dimentio!! i had a lot of fun making these :3

!!he/they/it for the both of them!!

[kestrel-wish]

REPOST YOUR ART OF CARP!!! The famous carpet deity, omg-

I remember the wildest things at such late hours

AYE AYE CAPTAIN! 👍 I'm not sure where a good chunk of the physical drawings of them are, and to be honest i never drew it as much as Kess ( or windhover, i tend to call them windhover sometimes to avoid confusion with my fursona ) mainly because Carp's ears are surprisingly hard to draw well. But here are the ones that I can find

This is the main drawing of them, and i think the first actual one?

Also this one that was drawn mainly for expression practice and boredom You can tell i gave up when it came to drawing the background and also that's supposed to be a couch they're sitting on it's just hard to tell because it looks like a brick lmao.

That's all the good ones i can find my art files are terrible to try and look through I also have some goofy super low effort doodles of Carp and Kess ( And others! ) too if you'd like those

Left lower is a random 'garden'/plant creature similar to carp i made up but never really used, ( their name is Dandy , i show them later ) along with an idea for what the ceiling ( 'Ceil' ) would look like. More cat-like since i think we joked that the carpet would be rivals/kind of jealous of the ceiling so cat/dog because funny. Middle bottom is Ampere. I don't remember actually showing you Ampere? So if i either didn't show you or it's been a while this is ampere ( below ) Similar to the others but like a kitchen electronic kind of guy and the upper right of the doodle page is Carp and lower right is Kess, ofc

I like where i went with this look but he's also way overdesigned compared to the others it's ridiculous looking. Very cool nonetheless but just a bit jarring. Very polite looking guy, though. Yeah not much actual carp art, that i can find at least there very well might be more. Can't find it for the life of me. Properly name your art files , people! But i have this other one of Ampere if that's something

It's all old ass art so kinda wonky looking now in hindsight. I want to come back to them eventually as characters they're all silly. but especially Carp and Kess because they're the coolest. Blatant favoritism. The amount of lore and ideas I've come up with for those funny Quotev group chat ocs is terrifying and frankly quite disturbing. I do have more doodles of Kess than carp if you want to see those later, just ask. And i think a small animation but don't quote me on that. Sadly just not much of Carp itself. Or the others that i've thought of for that matter. Like you can see I tried to make ones much later to add to the personified house things, but I kind of ended overdesigning them a lot like you can kind of see with Amp. And Dandy, the plant one. I don't think you've seen it ever either, i made them a while after Amp on a whim, i think. The vague idea just came to me and i felt the need to doodle them too.

I like Dandy's design ngl very soft and warm looking. I feel like their fur would feel kind of crunchy. It's very obviously a first time doodle but it's a fun idea. Man, i love drawing funnily themed cartoon dogs. I know this is less Carp art considering you asked for Carp specifically but there isn't much i can find so woe other old art be upon ye.

People who did not know me in my early Quotev days are going to be so confused lmao i'm not tagging any of this i don't even know what tags I would use.

[marinedecoder]

Happy new year, folks, I am - as almost always - running behind with stuff I meant to post closer to xmas because I'm fighting a dissertation currently. With that said, here's the first of a couple of posts that'll be coming out via my queue.

My partner went above and beyond for gifts over the festive period. I got the world's most useful kitchen organisation tool for my utensils, and two RH gifts! Sunny and Luna here - who I've been desperate for since their release - were my final gift from them. I'd never expressed I wanted them to the boo, so they were an amazing surprise.

I'm gonna try something a little different and shove the rest of my usual, rambling review under a cut. I might keep to this format later, I might not. This is basically a scrapbook for my dolly hobby for me, after all.

First things first!

Straight out the box impressions? I adore these girls (but it is painfully obvious where most of the budget went, poor Luna got the short straw lol)

With Luna having said short straw, I'll start with her:

She's stunning - her hair is a bit wonky out the box, but it's an easy fix. All her clothing pieces are very nicely made (as per usual for RH/SH), and I love the subtle sort of pinkish blush on her cheeks. I'm also super into her weirdly boxy shoes, they're sick as hell.

She's fully going to get the black mesh top Mila came with, and I think I've got black fishnet type tights she can have, too, for the meantime. Later down the line when I've got more energy I may try to make her the bodysuit she has in the show, we'll see.

I'm obsessed with both of their bags.

Luna's little box bag being able to open and close is delightful to me, as someone who was very used to Solid Plastic Doll Bags when I was little. It's also a super handy way to keep track of the twins' accessories while they're in the hair salon. Sunny's delightful little bear bag has that typical fuzzy flocking feeling, and is just painfully cute.

On that note, moving on to Sunny!

She is STUNNING. The little jibbitz on her crocs are adorable, and the "patch" on her shirt is such a sweet idea, her whole outfit is super cute.

Her skirt is two layers, and amazingly to me the pockets are fully functional (also as per usual, but with the material used I wasn't sure they would be)

Her hair is SO CRUNCHY though, oh my god. I'm not massively looking forward to trying to recreate that hairstyle without/with much less gel, haha! I'll get to it in time, though. That's all for these gals, more in the next post!

[thedaywebuiltthefort-blog]

Baking an ‘Extra Cake’

Some of the challenges on the list are easier than others. Some take weeks or even months of preparation, testing our capacities to commit to and see something through to the end. The marathon forced us to push the boundaries of our respective mental and physical comfort zones.

Then there are those challenges that, no matter how well prepared for them we are, could well end up with an impromptu trip to the hospital. This was undoubtedly one of the latter.

Number 34 - ‘bake the world’s most extra cake’.

For those of you who aren’t up to date with the latest lingo the term ‘extra’ does not, as I had previously thought, mean something that is especially good. In fact, the urban definition of ‘extra’ refers to anything that is overly excessive.

I love baking and at any given time will have a full array of flavourings, decorations and colours in my designated ‘baking cupboard’. So although the original plan was to bake a really good cake, we naturally decided to bake an overly excessive one instead. How? By baking every single ingredient in my cupboard into one enormous, terrifying frankencake of course.

Given my complete lack of organisation, when Kyli arrived to assist with the making of said cake, we had absolutely no idea what would be going into it. I had considered looking through the cupboard beforehand, but half the fun was seeing what would be going into the mixture together.

We decided to set out a couple of ground rules before starting. First of all we decided that no matter how unappetizing the combination, if it was in the cupboard it went into the cake provided it was a) consumable and b) reasonably within date (i.e. hadn’t grown legs and personality).

Secondly we decided that being as how several of the items were in multiples, that we only needed to one of each of them. For example, I have several shades of red food dye – for occasions when just the one shade of red won’t do – but we only used one.

With the non-consumable items removed, we were left with what was actually going to be put into the mixture. Aside from the normal items such as eggs, flour and sugar, we were both excited and horrified to discover we would in fact be making a coconut, caramel, strawberry, orange, vanilla, prosecco cake.

After much careful planning (about 2 minutes of chatting) we decided to use the ‘make the batter, seperate it into containers, colour and flavour each one and then sort of splat it into the pan’ method. What we ended up with was several bowls of radioactive looking mixture ready to go into the oven. For clarity, we had red strawberry flavoured mix, yellow prosecco flavoured mix, orange flavoured mix that was incidentally also orange, blue coconut mixture and green caramel mixture. The vanilla we used went into the butter-cream filling.

Going into the oven our creation resembled something halfway between a cake and a Muppet that someone had melted down and poured into a bowl.  It did however still smell like cake.

We sat and made plans for a few more fort activities whilst it was baking and I did the obligatory peek into the oven after about half an hour to see what was going on.

Now I do a lot of baking and have a pretty good knowledge of how my oven works. Usually at this stage of the process the cake is rising nicely, emitting both a pleasant heat and the delicious aroma of freshly made tasty treats.

This time I opened the oven door and was greeted by a blast of inferno-like hot air that could very well have come from the seventh circle of hell.

Eyeballs melting, my nostrils are met by something that smells a lot like what I imagine a burning carcass would smell like. Unfortunately Kylie wasn’t looking and so I had to do it a second time so that we could get a picture of me choking on the fumes. Here’s the picture. It’s delightful.

Once out of the oven and cooling, the cake actually smelt half decent once more, leading me to believe that it might in fact have been my oven that was the problem.

The next issue was that there were a few burnt patches on the outer layer that ruined the overall aesthetic we were going for. Obviously, the clear answer was that one of us needed to shave the cake. I was rewarded for my efforts with a slightly wonky dome shaped construction that looked like a confused hippy had vomited onto it.

We had used a lot of the colours we had in the batter, but still had a few that needed to put in their cameo appearances. With that in mind we decided to go for much the same approach to decorating as we did to mixing in that we just sort of made all the colours, lumped them on the top and hoped for the best.

That done, we also added gold food paint, silver, gold and pink glitter, crunchy strawberry pieces, golden shimmer bits, mini Jazzies, white chocolate and mixed decorative stars. Kylie did attempt to artfully throw stars across the top of the cake; however most of them missed and landed half way across the kitchen. Our wonderful monstrosity complete, we tucked it into the fridge to marinade in its own juices for a while until the icing had somewhat set.

Inevitably the moment finally came that we had been simultaneously dreading and anticipating – the actual tasting of the cake. Not sure what exactly to expect we videoed our taste test, the video from which will be posted on our Face book page along with the other pictures. I can’t speak for Kyli, but personally I was hoping for a Charlie & The Chocolate Factory-esque experience wherein each bite would be layered with a different flavour. Forks held aloft and the local ambulance service on speed dial, we finally got to see what an orange-coconut-caramel-strawberry-vanilla-prosecco cake tasted like.

The answer was – surprisingly pleasant.

Admittedly, the flavours we used were fairly standard flavours for a cake. It wasn’t as though we’d added a few tablespoons of gravy granules and a dollop or two of Heinz Salad cream into the bowl. I’m not sure if I was hoping for something disgusting or simply anticipating it based on my previous experiences of trying new things.

What we actually got was a reasonably light, somewhat overly sweet sponge. Kylie could taste more of the caramel; I could taste more of the strawberry. It was really quite edible despite looking like someone had carted it out of Chernobyl in a wheelbarrow.

Now I know it’s cheesy to try and crowbar meaning into any of the ridiculous things that we do but I would be lying if I said that making our ‘extra’ cake didn’t get me thinking. It seems like a good metaphor for life, or more accurately, the benefits of trying something new and crazy.

Would we have cared if it had tasted terrible? No, it would have been hilarious.

Sometimes you have to put everything you have into something just to see what happens. Our cake could have been a disaster and it could have been a triumph. Until you try something new, you’ll never know what you might create.

So would we recommend baking a cake using absolutely every ingredient in your baking cupboard?

Absolutely. Just don’t blame us if it tastes like absolute garbage.

Which it might.

[aprilsimpsonhunt-blog]

*this post contains affliate links. You can find more info about these links in our disclosure, down below! 

  Hi everyone! welcome, welcome! Thank you for stopping by, whether you’re new or just cruising through. It’s so nice to have you!

  Thanks so much for joining me. I’m so excited to share with you today! I’m part of the DIBY club’s Duchess blog tour. Each blogger on the tour will be sharing their own unique perspective on the pattern. We will have lots of fun along the way. I can’t wait to see everyone’s posts! Let’s get to it!

  Jessica Hooley, creator of the DIBY club

Jessica Hooley is one of my favorite people in the online sewing community. If you don’t know her, I highly suggest finding a way to connect with her! She is very into DIY of all types (spa materials, cooking, sewing and crafting, etc) and a knack for explaining things. On the main Do It Better Yourself Club site, you can find a virtual wealth of info & tons of great DIY projects. There is also a facebook group that is very active, where members share ideas and plans freely and really support each other. It’s a beautiful thing, this community she’s created! She can be found a number of places. One of my favorite places to follow her is the Youtube channel, where she walks you through tons of great projects. The way she describes things so thoroughly, yet succinctly, is incredible. Even though I consider myself an “advanced” seasmstress, I can always find something on Jess’s channel that I can learn more about. I’m so inspired by everything Jessica has done in the time I’ve been following her. While so many people are out to get their cut of profits, she willingly shares things openly and freely, simply because of her love for doing them. It’s a beautiful thing! Sorry for talking on and on. I really wanted you all to know and understand why this pattern is so special to me. The community and designer are (usually) the main reasons! 🙂

Onto the star of the show…

(the skirt. Not me. haha. Although it did make me feel a bit like a star)

DIBY duchess skirt with mama cassie top from Made for Mermaids

Much like the designer behind the Do It Better Yourself Club, this pattern is a fresh, new take on a wardrobe staple. The Duchess skirt is calm, cool and collected. It’s also a remarkably quick sew. (Seriously! It takes me 4 days to make a basic item I have 4 kids.) This skirt, from cut to finish, took me less than an hour. The PDF pattern is available now and can be downloaded in both misses and plus sizes. (both are included in the pattern) It’s a loose flowing skirt with a high low hem, that can be made from woven or knit fabric (SCORE!). It’s also FREE! 

There are several different ways to create the skirt, as it comes in 2 lengths, but with 2 different rises. However you mix and match it, it ends up being a perfect look for just about any outfit. One of my (many) favorite things about this pattern is that it’s cut in such a way that it works with the grainline to ensure it cascades elegantly away from your body in the best way even when made from something stiff, such as quilting cotton! (“Some” have said that it is really great at making your backside look amazing.)

Generally speaking, when I’m testing a new pattern, I like to ensure I’m doing things correctly. I typically don’t hack or mash patterns while testing, either. But since this wasn’t a traditional pattern test, I wanted to try and do something a little different. I decided to try a woven skirt with a knit waistband. I wanted to be sure to do Jessica’s pattern justice, so I made sure to read the instructions very thoroughly. This is a step I wouldn’t recommend skipping, either. There were a couple new things that I learned about, just from reading through the pattern instructions! (Stay stitching…who knew?!)

From the beginning, I noticed that the pattern was available with a layers feature. This is something I’ve only recently begun using, but I LOOOOOOVE it! I’m big on saving money by printing in black and white or greyscale, reusing the back of my unused pages, etc, so printing in layers is right up my alley! There is also a whole page in the instructions that tells you what pages to print for which size, so even without the adobe pdf reader to print off layers, you can still save a little time and ink! Another thing I loved is that there are circle guides. I don’t know about you, but even when printing at a full unscaled 100%, my printer still tends to go a little wonky and pages end up not being straight. The circle guides are perfect for ensuring things line up for you. Don’t be afraid to use them!

Duchess Skirt with a modified Key West Tank by New Horizons

I’ve mentioned the instructions and that you should follow them, but I’m not sure I really made note of just how incredible they are. There are links to tutorials, little tips and tricks, as well as videos to go along with the instructions. There were a couple things that were new to me such as stay stitching the waist and changing the inseam for my height. These things were explained in the easiest way possible and by the end of doing them, I felt like I could repeat them time and again without issue, although if I had any issues, there were plenty of ways to get in touch with Jessica, the admins, her group. There was also a tutorial for any issue you can imagine! I love it! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen instructions so detailed. And even though they were thorough and detailed, it didn’t feel like a chore, reading them. Pretty good stuff!

The pattern calls for a zipper when using a woven material. I had just finished another woven project (George and Ginger’s mood dress) and didn’t have a zipper. I love a good woven skirt, but me and zippers aren’t the best of friends. I do, however, love a great yoga waistband. The combination of the lightweight material I used, combined with the comfort of that knit waistband, is perfection. It wasn’t too hard to switch up my waistband, although I did end up jumping around in the instructions, because the woven and knit waistbands both have their own individual ones. The skirt is drafted to sit at your waist, so if you plan to follow my lead and try this at home, be sure to make sure it will fit over your hips. I didn’t think things out the first go round, so I made sure to add a little bit to the waist on my second try. For my size (size 3, according to the pattern measurements), I added about 1.5 inches to the waist by simply making the opening a bit larger. I did this during the cutting phase and before doing my stay stitching.

    I followed the rest of the directions for the woven skirt and made sure to finish my seams to avoid fraying. Before moving on to the waistband (on the second version), I followed Jessica’s tips from her curved hem tutorial . This meant doing my hem before finishing the other parts of my skirt. I have to give credit where it’s due (again!) by saying that if it weren’t for her tutorial, I would have pulled my hair out from dong this hem. The combination of a curved hem, together with the non stretching woven material, tends to irk me a bit. Even with the great instruction, it isn’t perfect. But it’s much closer than it would have been, if left to my own devices! 🙂

After hemming and sewing the skirt piece together, I added my waistband. Because I was doing the knit waistband and a woven skirt, there was some stretching involved. It was one of those times where you must stretch one fabric but try not to stretch the other at all. This is where her tip to staystitch came in extra handy. If it hadn’t been for the staystitching, I believe the two would have been a bit harder to mash up. But mash they did. And the result is perfect, at least for me. I used to have a white pencil skirt that I loved, but never fit quite right, so I would pull it out, try it on…. and then always end up hanging it back up. I’m so excited to finally have a white skirt that fits well and will go with anything!

    From start to finish, the Duchess Skirt pattern is exceptional. I’ve made so many patterns over the last few years. I’ve had horrid experiences and I’ve had amazing ones. The majority of the time, patterns fall somewhere in between. They aren’t something you LOVE but they’re not terrible, either. This pattern is one that I can confidently say is going to be in my “most used” pile of patterns. Even when not using the pattern, I will be making use of the tutorials and tips provided by Jessica and her crew. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Get the Duchess skirt pattern for FREE here:

https://doitbetteryourself.club/product/duchess-high-low-skirt/?ref=2256

Thanks so much for reading!

Until next time,

Sewin’ & Swimmin’,

April Simpson-Hunt

    I’ve compiled a list of my fellow testers/bloggers below. The blog tour posts are also linked at the very bottom. I highly recommend visiting each and every one of their blogs to check them out! Some of these ladies have been my sewing inspiration for the past couple years. I’m so honored to be posting in a round up with them!

  Sarah Connell of Sewing with Sarah: http://www.sewingwithsarah.com/

An Staute of Diskordia’s Curvy Sewing: http://diskordiascurvysewing.blog

Anna Metcalf of Kainara Stitches: kainarastitches.wordpress.com

Melissa Ross of Wonderfully Handmade: https://wonderfullyhandmade.com

Lori Bowers of Seams So Low: https://www.seamssewlo.com/

Amy Betts of Sea of Estrogen: http://seaofestrogen.com

Angela Spontak of Cookie on the Loose: www.cookieontheloose.com

Kelly Stevens of On Wednesdays We Sew: Www.onwednesdayswesew.com

Aaronica Cole of The Crunchy Mommy: www.thecrunchymommy.com

    The Duchess Blog Tour Schedule

July 25th – Sewing With Sarah | Diskordia’s Curvy Sewing July 26th – Kainara Stitches | Wonderfully Handmade July 27th – Seams Sew Lo | Mermaid Mama Designs July 28th – Swimming in a Sea of Estrogen | Cookie on The Loose July 29th – On Wednesdays we Sew | The Crunchy Mommy

    Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running!  Thank you for your support!

Regal Comfort: DIBY Club – The Duchess Blog Tour *this post contains affliate links. You can find more info about these links in our disclosure, down below! 

[tune-collective]

The 15 Best Justin Bieber Songs

The 15 Best Justin Bieber Songs

When it comes to pop reinvention, Madonna may be queen, but Justin Bieber is an undeniable king. He started as the cherub-faced heartthrob of your tweenage dreams, quickly grew up into public cultural enemy number one, and somehow rebounded as someone hipsters, dance fans, pop kids, and R&B lovers could agree on.

Throughout his many phases, the one thing that’s remained constant is the music. If anything, the quality has exponentially increased. Love or hate him – and most people love him now – Bieber is a talented singer, songwriter, musician, and dancer. He’s the total package, and his choice in collaborators is more than impressive. Here we go through our picks for the 15 best Justin Bieber songs from the start of his career to now. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5-P9v3F8w

15. Justin Bieber – “Never Say Never” feat. Jaden Smith

Will Smith is one of Bieber’s ultimate mentors, so of course he and son Jaden Smith got together in the studio when young Smith’s remake of Karate Kid needed a soundtrack. “Never Say Never” still has a bit of young cheese, but it went on to be one of Bieber’s defining early career moments. It was originally written as an adult song called “Sexy Together,” but writers changed the message to reflect one of great courage and confidence, a much more important message for kids to hear, and in 2010, the great majority of Bieber’s fans were still young tweens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4em3LKQCAQ

14. Justin Bieber – “As Long As You Love Me” feat. Big Sean

Who’s ready for some Bieb-step? It’s like dubstep, except it’s Justin Bieber. You get it. This song tries to be a bit dark, but it’s more pink sugar than it is black coffee. It’s still one of the highlights of any Justin Bieber set. The Big Sean feature isn’t the rapper’s best work, but it gives the song a bit of added bite, and who doesn’t enjoy a few verses from Big Sean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXUSaVw3Mvk

13. Justin Bieber – “One Less Lonely Girl”

You know why you can’t help loving this Justin Bieber song? Because Usher wrote and produced it. That and the angelic voice of 14-year-old Bieber is sweeter than honey on vanilla ice cream. While a lot of the baby Bieber tunes are overly saccharine and don’t necessarily translate into our adult lives, “One Less Lonely Girl” is one of those kiddy pop songs that transcends your tweenage puppy love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys7-6_t7OEQ

12. Justin Bieber – “Beauty and a Beat” feat. Nicki Minaj

Remember when Justin Bieber’s “computer was stolen” and someone threatened to release the personal footage contained within? The world waited with baited breath (some of us, anyway) for the juicy details, but in the end, it was just a ploy to drum up excitement for this Bieber video. It is a good jam, though, and it represents Bieber’s first strong step onto the dance floor. It’s produced by Zedd and Max Martin, which explains that crunchy synth breakdown I love so much. It was originally written for someone else, but it was Bieber’s idea to put Minaj on the track. Well done, sir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx7gN1UyX0

11. Justin Bieber – “Company”

Love in the 21st Century is hard. You want to get to know someone, but you have to keep a healthy distance. It’s the game we’ve created for ourselves, and though none of us really wants to play, them’s the rules. “Company” is a beautiful take on modern romance, a sweet invitation to come closer while maintaining the perfect veil of coy casualty, and it’s just a damn good pop song.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GuqB1BQVr4

10. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”

I know Bieber’s reinvention campaign really kicked off with Jack Ü and the Purpose album, but for me, the turning point from teenage hearthrob to adult-ready pop star was “Boyfriend.” That darker sound, that whisper intro, it’s so sexual it almost hurts – even though he still looks like a cherub. Many comparisons have been made to Justin Timberlake’s step-out solo single “Girlfriend,” from the obvious title mirroring down to the similar parking lot pimpin’ music video treatment. This was Bieber stepping out into his “swag” trap ish, and if we listen closely, we can hear the incoming dance music production partnerships coming a mile a minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC2yu2a9sHk

9. Justin Bieber – “All That Matters”

Sunday slow jam me so hard with this song. This is some slinky, bluesy, babe magic. The acoustic guitar mixes with the harsh electronic beat perfectly, creating a modern R&B sound that can bridge audiences and age gaps. The lyrics were written during a “happy time” in Bieber and Selena Gomez’ relationship, which is kind of heartbreaking but adorable at the same time. Play this at my wedding, and then again at the honeymoon when no one is watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47YClVMlthI

8. Justin Bieber – “Confident” feat. Chance the Rapper

This was another one of those music videos that pulled Bieber into the world of awkward adult lust. These dance moves are too cute, as is our boy. That he teamed up with Chance the Rapper only solidified my strange, building love for the Biebs, and this was before Chance had the Kanye co-sign. “Confident” is beat-heavy with a playful, wonky melody that sticks in your brain and won’t let go. Definitely some feel yourself music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4

7. Justin Bieber – “Baby” feat. Ludacris

Justin Bieber is actually 16 on this song, though he looks and sounds like he could be 12. At that tender teen age, he stole our hearts with a saccharine hook that actually really stands the test of time. “Baby” may have been your tweenage little sister’s favorite jam and your dad’s least favorite song of 2010, but in retrospect, it’s an effing great pop tune. His childlike voice is so earnest and clear, and the fact that Ludacris co-signs a teenage heart throb is more than enough to tell you, this kid is up to something. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_0jXPuIr0

6. Justin Bieber – “What Do You Mean”

First of all, this music video is freaking amazing. John Leguizamo is a national treasure. Bless him for co-starring in this totally insane clip. Why does Bieber think faking an attempt to kidnap is a good date idea? As if falling into a skate park rave makes the trauma go away. That being said, Bieber’s tropical house follow up to Jack Ü breakout “Where Are Ü Now” is a fanciful, fun-loving breath of fresh pop air. He’s back in the studio with Skrillex and Diplo on this cut, which is turns out was not a solitary experience in any way imaginable. Skrillex is all over the Purpose album, and this is one of the best take-aways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMvIARf_SUU

5. Major Lazer – “Cold Water” feat. Justin Bieber & MØ

Bieber’s third phase career as one of the leading dance music vocalists continues to amaze. This collaboration with Major Lazer is a great follow-up to the work he did with Jack Ü, and the addition of MØ’s instantly-recognizable rasp is as bolstering as the bright horn work on the hook. It’s got a bit of that dancehall flavor Major Lazer is known for, but it’s still one of the poppiest works from the trio to date. Put this tune on when you’ve got a friend who needs a life saver and a night on the dance floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euCqAq6BRa4

4. DJ Snake – “Let Me Love You” ft. Justin Bieber

Once Bieber found such success with Skrillex and Diplo, the dance producer flood gates were opened. DJ Snake had to get his own Bieber-assisted super hit, and “Let Me Love You” is one of those pop songs you hear and instantly want to hear again. It’s got that same wonky horn synth from “Lean On,” and it’s got all the dreamy falsetto a young heart can handle. It’s one of the best tunes from DJ Snake’s debut LP Encore, and it was one of the biggest moments of his recent Main Stage closing set at 2017’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami. We can’t help thinking Bieber had a huge part in the song’s success, because, well, he always does, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEuk8j8imI

3. Justin Bieber – “Love Yourself”

I hereby nominate “Love Yourself” as being the Justin Bieber song with the best lyrics. First of all, opening your track by berating someone for using your name to get into clubs is a clutch superstar move. Also, a chorus all about how your mom likes everyone except your ex is absolutely brilliant. We’ve got to give a nod to Ed Sheeran to the songwriting assist, but we are pretty sure we here honest Bieber all over this. It’s an overly-simple tune, mostly just Bieber and an acoustic guitar with a bit of trumpet thrown in for good measure. It’s incredibly raw, when you think about it, but it plays like a celebratory pop anthem. It’s quite vulnerable for mainstream radio, and Bieber pulls it off with grace and the gusto of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRh_vgS2dFE

2. Justin Bieber – “Sorry”

The Bieb’s big reinvention LP Purpose is, at its core, all about forgiveness. We as fans needed to forgive him for that weird period where everyone decided he was the worst – or the best, depending on how you feel about young, famous tricksters. He needed to forgive himself for making an ass of himself publicly, and of course, there’s the whole romantic notion of Bieber apologizing to the women (cough Selena Gomez cough) he may have hurt along the road to maturity. “Sorry” is, in that sense, the peak of the Purpose album. Thinly veiled as an amorous apology, he’s just laying it all out over an infectious rhythm with a hook that can’t be denied. Oh Justin, when you come into the room looking like this and singing like that, we just can’t help but forgive you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntGTK2Fhb0

1. Jack Ü – “Where Are Ü Now” ft. Justin Bieber

I once saw Bieber’s famous manager Scooter Braun give a talk at P. Diddy’s Revolt Music Conference, and he said the moment he knew they had won the Bieber reinvention campaign was when he took the stage at Ultra Music Festival Miami with Skrillex and Diplo, and nobody boo’d. Bieber greeted the Main Stage and performed this song live with the Jack Ü crew, and it was straight glorious. The work with Jack Ü helped solidify Bieber’s new sound as an adult pop star. It’s more grown-up, but it’s still got that sheen of candy-colored fantasy. The pitched-up vocal line in the hook is instantly recognizable and was certainly a game changer in the pop and dance production world at the time. “Where Are Ü Now” is truly a milestone in the pop-dance crossover canon, and it will remain on of Bieber, Skrillex, and Diplo’s best songs for perceivably the rest of the trio’s career.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.

https://tunecollective.com/2017/04/27/the-15-best-justin-bieber-songs/