Shawn Mendes Releases ‘Lost In Japan’ And It’s A Jam

Earlier this week, Shawn Mendes began teasing the dates of March 22 and 23 on his social media feeds. While March 22 brought his first new single in years with “In My Blood,” we thought Friday’s announcement would include information on his third studio album. Instead, he dropped a second single, the high energy pop track “Lost In Japan.” We’ll take it.

Where “In My Blood” shows Mendes at his most vulnerable, with the singer opening up about his struggles with anxiety, “Lost In Japan” is a 180, with Mendes sounding happier and more and carefree than we’ve heard in years. The song has tones of Mendes’ good friend and fellow musician John Mayer, with Mayer’s 2017 “Still Feel Like Your Man” sounding like the inspiration for “Lost In Japan” (Mayers’ music video for the single is also Japanese themed).

Giving his millions of members of the Mendes Army a feel good love track, Mendes sings about wanting to travel hundreds of miles to be with that one special person. Insert self here.

While Shawn hasn’t yet announced the new title or release date of his follow up to 2016’s Illuminate, he did release a brief snippet of an interview with Beats 1 host Zane Lowe. Bringing Lowe to the house where he recorded his new record, Mendes said that he wanted his new music to have a Kings of Leon vibe. While we haven’t quite heard that with the first two singles, there’s a still an entire album to come.

Mendes also talked about recording his track “In My Blood,” which was the first song he wrote for his third album.

“It was kind of something that hit me within the last year. Before that, growing up, I was a pretty calm kid, super steady. I knew people who had suffered from anxiety and found it kind of hard to understand, but then when it hits you, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is this? This is crazy,’” said Mendes.

“That song is complete truth and the best thing about it is, it’s not all down. The whole reason I wrote this song was to be like, at the end, ‘It’s not in my blood to do that.’”

The full interview with Zane Lowe is expected to drop in the next few days. Mendes is currently up for two JUNO Awards this Sunday, including Fan Choice and Single of the Year for “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back.” You can catch Mendes starring as an advisor for Team Alicia Keys on The Voice on Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.