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POP SONG REVIEW: “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendes

Todd in the Shadows | December 21, 2025



The new song by Shawn M’endes…

Written by Todd in the Shadows

Comments

This post currently has 47 comments.

  7. @justanotheranimeprofilepic

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    Y'know, I think I finally pieced together why this song feels so wrong. It's trying to be face down by red jumpsuit apparatus but instead of "hey, you should leave this abusive prick and stand up for yourself" it's " hey, you should sleep with me and I promise not to hurt you". how scummy

  10. @NikoTrouvere

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    11:06 Gonna post a stupid rant on a 9 year old video about a song I’ve never listened to before this.

    Disclaimer: I’m not a Taylor swift fan, I was when I was a preteen/teenage girl, but I haven’t listed to anything since fearless I don’t think, and I don’t really even listen to those old albums anymore.

    Idk, to me “you belong with me” hits differently. Like, I don’t love it, but it’s different to me for a few reasons beyond just what Todd said in the video.

    – It just hits differently when written by a girl? Idk, it just feels less entitled and more yearning.

    – Even that aside, even though Taylor (19) was actually older when “You belong with Me” came out than Shawn (16) when “Treat you better” came out, “You belong with me” feels like a much more juvenile song. The sound is more bubbly and upbeat, and the video and lyrics both evoke a high school setting. Whereas, “treat you better” is sung like an adult ballad, and the video is certainly a lot more mature looking. And that kind of like “nice girl/guy” attitude is just more forgivable in teenagers in high school. Idk, that like yearning for the prom king / queen and resenting their partner thing just plays a lot better if you told me a high schooler was doing it than a grown man.

    – also, everyone I know who grew up on Taylor swift considers “you belong with me” to be a bit cringe now, and for a lot of us it’s literally the “Taylor swift nice girl song,” so I don’t think she entirely gets away with it.

    – I do feel like she got away with it a bit more with teenagers because for the reasons above it resonated with them, but like once they grew up most people outgrew the song.

    – also, idk, to me at least “you belong with me” is just more of a bop? Like it’s not great, and a lot of this might be nostalgia, but if “you belong with me” came on somewhere I was, I really wouldn’t think that much about the lyrics because it’s catchy enough for me to at least temporarily enjoy it on those merits, where as “treat you better” just, isn’t. It’s a depressing slog that I can’t see someone listening to for fun.

    – Finally, and this is a minor note, why the fuck does the video appear to show like full on abuse? Like, I know this isn’t a novel point, but it’s one thing to be a nice guy and be like “oh, your boyfriend is such a dick, I could treat you better” and another to know a woman is fully being abused and still swooping in with your nice guy bullshit. Like, imagine if “Face Down” had a final verse where the singer is like “so anyways, once she leaves you, we’re gonna get together” it would just feel so fucking skeevy. And this does to me too.

  11. @JThaGeek

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    Between the fake Jamaican accent and the manipulative lyrics, I can't tell which one is worse tbh. One of Todd's best reviews ngl. Face Down by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is a million times better with its message and promotes independence and self-growth.

  16. @AdamDeLand

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    I'm comparing this to a song I actually like, but mishearing the lyric "wasted crying" as "wasted crime" reminds me of a lyric I misheard in Hootie and the Blowfish's Hold My Hand; I misheard "I thought about your crimes" as "I thought about your crap".

  24. @faultyvideos2215

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    Early 2022 was a really rough time in my life. I was 17 at the time, and I was living with my cousin because i didn't feel safe at my own home because of my stepdad. Tensions had been high between him and basically everyone else in the house for a while at this point, but no matter what he did to us (including breaking my mom's arm) she wouldnt get rid of him for whatever reason. That might have been fine for her, but it wasn't fine with me, so after one night when he pinned me down and threatened my life over me trying to put his total brat of a daughter to bed (who he had been ignoring the whole night to play call of duty), I had enough, and first thing that next morning, i was out of there and living with my cousin.

    This was far from the end of it, as her parents would also argue regularly (though as far as im aware, it never got physical like it had for my own), I was sleeping on an air mattress that was completely deflated and on the floor by morning no matter what i did, and because i wasnt in the greatest headspace for what I hope are pretty apparent reasons at this point, my grades had started to decline and I had started to act out in class, mainly in the form of beating myself with whatever i could get my hands on; textbooks, laptops, at the worst of it even an ice pack that a faculty member had given me to STOP my head from swelling from how hard I was hitting myself. It was some of the absolute worst months of my life, and I wouldn't wish what I had gone through on my worst enemy.

    But despite all that shit, the worst part of this period of my life is that my mom's friend, who also worked at the school and was my ride during this period, had a playlist that she would NEVER shuffle, and the first three songs (which were typically all that would play before we got to school) were Stitches, this song, and some other third shitty ass Shawn Mendez song that Ive probably repressed from my memory.

    All of this to say, fuck you Shawn Mendez. Fuck you for making one of the worst periods of my entire life that much worse.

  28. @Ms.Amylia_Clenny

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    "Better than he can!" Is the lyric Todd keeps mishearing.

    It's being pronounced "Beddah than 'e ca~n!". So that stylistic choice when Shawn Mendez switched up to a more Ebonix tone temporarily threw Todd for a loop. I kinda get it, since Shawn Mendez doesn't usually talk like that & is pretty white. That said, I understood that line the 1st time I heard it. Then again, I live in the Portalnd, Oregon metro area.

  29. @nbcommiedyke

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    people have been shitting on Taylor Swift for every decision she makes for 20 years. they were def dragging her for ybwm. but, as usual, she's taking it all to the bank.

  32. @ombrenightcores

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    Takes me back to the days when someone asked me why I liked this song and I responded “because at least it sounds better than Stitches” and back then you really were forced to listen to one or the other if you turned on the radio or worked in retail like I did

  33. @ThePi314Man

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    You know, revisiting this eight years later, it's incredible how this remains just as awful as it was upon release. More importantly, I'm reminded of how many other songs do this exact thing far better than Mendes could ever hope.

    For example, Let Me Love You by Mario. Lot of the same lyrical structure, but it's directly pointed out that the boyfriend is cheating and she's aware of it. But more importantly, the song is smooth R&B sung with a smooth melody by a performer with actual charisma.

    Or for that matter, Break Up With Him by Old Dominion. That song is from the perspective of the guy being cheated with, arguing that she ought to stop wasting time stringing him along and just break up so they can be together. At least in that scenario, both parties know they're being assholes, but they're responding in kind to what's already occurring between them, whereas Treat You Better is a whiny tantrum by a guy who thinks he's owed affection but isn't getting it.

    Honestly this song reminds me of Duck from Pretty In Pink more than anything.

  42. @User02741

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    The fact that this song also has a very watered down version of a dancehall beat makes it even worse. This feels like cultural appropriation, I'm pretty sure that whoever invented dancehall didn't intend it to be used like this

  45. @TheBleanaru

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    Someone said this about a different song with similar lyrics: it's the whole "you should be with ME instead!" thing. Like… He sets up that this is supposedly a toxic relationship the person he's singing about is in, but all HE cares about is that person being with HIM. Suuuure it's painted as "well I can treat you better!" But someone coming out of a toxic relationship does not need a new relationship. They need help processing it without romantics muddying the waters. It's all him, him, him. No real acknowledgement about how the person he's singing about is being mistreated, or how they should actually be treated better. Just a nondescript promise of treating them better, and that REALLY they should be dating HIM.

  46. @pip9533

    December 21, 2025 at 8:10 pm

    For the longest time I thought Stitches and Treat You Better were the same song, with “all you need is stitches” being the pre chorus and “better than he can” being the chorus. After this video, I think I was wrong to ever change my mind and think they were different.

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