Justin Bieber spills pieces of his broken heart in his new song, “Nothing Like Us.”
The piano ballad, featured on “Believe Acoustic,” is an anguished tale of his break-up with Selena Gomez.
The spare track, which Billboard.com premiered today, features a subdued Bieber plaintively telling Gomez, “I wish I could give you what you deserve because nothing can ever, ever replace you… you know there”s no one I can relate to/you know we won”t find a love that”s so true.”
He later sings, “I gave you everything/everything I had to give/Girl, why would you push me away?” It”s a raw, simple song delivered at points in a near whisper by Bieber as he goes through the five stages of grief over their parting.
While Bieber seems to blame the break-up on Gomez, asking her “was it worth it,” he finally comes to the acceptance stage, resigned to the fact that they are truly over: “That is the past now/we didn”t last now.”
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Bieber told Billboard he wrote the song while staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. “They have a piano in the room. I sat down and it was something that came out and I recorded it on my iPhone. Then I went to the studio and I really recorded it and sang it better.”
He added “I want people to hear what”s coming from my heart, and this is definitely the most that I”ve been sharing what I”m actually feeling.”
While the song doesn”t have the bite of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River,” which Gomez performed at a Unicef benefit on Jan. 19, it does have the authentic ring of a young man dealing with heartache. “Believe Acoustic” comes out Jan. 29 and featues acoustic versions of songs from “Believe,” as well as a few new tracks in addition to “Nothing Like Us.”
Bieber, who has more than 33 million followers on Twitter, will host and perform on “Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 9.
What do you think of “Nothing Like Us?”