Ilana Dadras: This song sounds like a Purpose B-Side—or maybe a song that was cut from Purpose when they realized every track on that album is better, and/or they had to draw the line at 18 tracks with the same message of, "I know I'm kind of a fuck boy, but I'm also still into this in one way or another, which causes me confusion." The refrain "Can we be friends?" is pretty quintessential Bieber, and in the chain of events might be placed between other memorable one-liners "Is it too late now to say I'm sorry?" and "You should go and love yourself." 

Sam Eichner: It’s strange listening to a song for the first time knowing that you will, as the result of countless subsequent listens, at bars, on the radio, in the background, have it stuck in your head. There’s a reluctant acknowledgement that any criticism you might have about it now will eventually be hammered into a beleaguered sort of acceptance: Fine, like, I guess I’m into this now?

That said, this feels like a classic Bieber song, in the sense that if you put it on and didn’t tell me it was new I’d probably think it had already existed. It taps into the same engineered vulnerability as “Sorry”--“Can we still be friends?”--and is almost as catchy, will likely become as catchy after another hundred or so inadvertent listens. The beat seems practically pre-remixed. I’m already dreading the point where I know all the words and find myself singing along in the car or, worse, a bar, dancing uncontrollably, simultaneously hating myself and loving life, which ironically seems like the default psychological stance for Bieber himself.