Justin Bieber is set to release an acoustic album, My Worlds Acoustic, on Black Friday, November 26. But the album's only new track, "Pray," hit the Internet Friday (November 12). The song isn't acoustic, but, as Bieber and his musical director Dan Kanter had promised, it's an inspirational track with world-music influences.
The song opens with Bieber singing, "And I pray" over a keyboard. Then he sings, "I just can't sleep tonight/ Knowing that things ain't right." He describes some of the suffering in the world before concluding, "But I know there's sunshine behind that rain/ I know there's good times beyond that pain/ Hey, can wewe tell me how I can make a change."
The track which features a mid-tempo, world-music beat, synths and Bieber's vocals in a lower key than we've heard before repeats one simple refrain in the chorus. Bieber sings, "I close my eyes and I can see a better day/ I close my eyes and pray."
"I really think that I did an acoustic album because there's a lot of haters out there that say, 'Justin Bieber can't sing. His voice is all Auto-Tuned,' " he told MTV News. "And there's a lot with production, it kind of drowns out your voice, and it takes away from the singer, over the synths and everything. ... I think kind of stripping it down and having it kind of really mellow and being able to hear my voice is why I wanted to do it."