Two years after Shawn Mendes paused his career to take a mental health break, the singer will return in October with a new album titled Shawn.
Ahead of the album’s Oct. 18 release, Mendes has shared the Shawn acoustic ballad “Isn’t That Enough.”
“Music really can be medicine. 2 years ago I felt like I had absolutely no idea who I was. A year ago I couldn’t step into a studio without falling into complete panic. So to be here right now with 12 beautiful finished songs feels like such a gift,” Mendes wrote in an Instagram post announcing the LP.
“Honestly thank god for my friends and family. Life can be brutal but having a small group of people you deeply trust to walk you through makes it so much better. I have no idea how I would have made it through the last couple years let alone make an album without you.”
The album was recorded over the past two years after Mendes canceled his Wonder world tour in order to focus on his mental health, with the singer laying down tracks in a wide variety of studios including Nosara in Costa Rica, Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York, Bear Creek Studio in Washington State, Darkhorse Recordings in Nashville, and New York City’s Electric Lady.
Shawn was written and co-produced by Mendes, alongside collaborators Scott Harris, Mike Sabath, Nate Mercereau, and Eddie Benjamin, with additional songs co-written by Amy Allen and Ethan Gruska. The Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile provides instrumentation on the album.
The album’s first proper single, “Why Why Why,” will arrive Aug. 8. Shawn is also available to preorder now.
Following the release of 2020’s Wonder and his mental-health break, Mendes reemerged from the studio to share a new solo song about the climate crisis, “What the Hell Are We Dying For?” and linked up with Jacob Collier, Stormzy, and Kirk Franklin for the collaboration, “Witness Me.”
Last June, Mendes returned to the stage for the first time since canceling his tour, as well. He popped up at Ed Sheeran’s concert in Toronto (Mendes’ hometown) to perform Sheeran’s “Lego House,” as well as an acoustic rendition of his own song, “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back.”
