What Does Justin Bieber's Album Cover Mean?

Get your encrypting gear ready, folks, because Justin Bieber maybe just revealed his new album title with an image that is... well, a little confusing in terms of font choice. Which is to say it's entirely illegible. If you have a knack for making out poor handwriting (teachers of the world, this is your moment), you’re in luck — because the cover image is a single word written rather sloppily on a black background. But, what that word says is up for debate. In fact, one look at Twitter, and you'll see that a lot of people are responding to the image that Bieber tweeted on Friday afternoon with a whole mess of questions and confusion, most of which goes something along the lines of, “What the heck does that say?”

The confusion lies mostly in the font that was used. There’s a handwritten quality to it that makes it almost impossible to make out. It also makes almost every single letter in the word look like another letter entirely. So, even though people are coming around to the fact that the cover most likely reads, “Purpose,” there are technically a ton of other things it might also say.

The problem is with a few of the critical letters. The capital P looks like a capital O. The U and R look like some combination of letters (I? Maybe N or M?). And then there’s the S that maybe could be an R. Then, to top it all off, there’s this bizarre squiggle thing after the E that could either be an N or an S.

Suffice to say, people are confused...

So, it’s time for the Beliebers to start their theorizing. Because, if there’s one thing I love about fanatics, it’s their ability to analyze the crap out of any and all clues coming from the source of their exhilaration. And, if the possibilities are endless for what this word could be, that means there will be endless theorizing about all of the alternate titles Bieber might really mean for the album to go by. So, in honor of all of my favorite Beliebers, I thought I’d give a few of my own a shot. Below are some of the things Justin Bieber’s new album might say and what those alternate titles might say about his new music.

Purposen

Doesn’t this sound like some obscure species of flower that can only be found in the foothills of Scandinavia?

Pnrporen

I studied abroad in the Czech Republic, so this mashup of consonants doesn’t seem that impossible to me. Does someone have a Czech-to-English dictionary I could use to translate?

Prrrposes

The album, it turns out, is just a bunch of tracks of cats having their bellies rubbed.

Propose

Surprise! The Biebs got married! To his fans. Cue the sound of screaming teenagers everywhere.

PSelena Gomez

This might work.

I could go on — really, the possibilities are endless with this kind of cover. Hopefully the Biebs will start calling the album by name soon so we can all rest our weary and theory-heavy heads.