I Don't Care

"I Don't Care" is functionally summer in audio form — two of the world's most recognizable pop voices conspiring to produce something so frictionlessly pleasant it almost feels like a magic trick. The production is bright and trebly, guitars chiming, handclaps arriving on time, a melody that appears to have been engineered specifically to get stuck. Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber share the track with a comfortable camaraderie, neither attempting to outshine the other, both sounding exactly like themselves. Sheeran's vocal is warmer and more rhythmically adventurous, Bieber's more earnest and direct. The song's central idea is simple and resonant: the social anxiety of being in a crowded, overwhelming place, dissolved entirely by the presence of one person. It does not complicate this premise or add irony — it commits to the feeling with complete sincerity. Culturally, both artists had spent years as polarizing figures and seemed to be, at this point in their careers, simply enjoying the craft without excessive calculation. The song does not try to mean more than it does, which is itself a kind of sophistication. You play it at the beginning of something — the start of a playlist, the first song at a gathering, the drive to a party you were not sure you wanted to attend. It exists to create good conditions for other things.