Justin Bieber -Changes

Justin Bieber
Changes
2020
Spotify

Is your pop star career in a tailspin? Have personal missteps and constant media attention driven you to yet another self-reinvention? Is the world against you, but you're ready to prove them all wrong? Well then you may just be one of the many mega mega pop starts looking to rehab their image. Taylor Swift, and now Justin Bieber are on the "let's make a documentary to see how relate able I am" train. This approach, while it may have worked somewhere in the annals of history, but it makes these millionaire seem all the more out of touch. Taylor Swift wants you to think every misstep she has taken is only a product of wanting to impress her fans. She is so obsessed with praise that it's made her tailor her art so that it appeals to the most people, rather than saying something real about herself. Bieber has been saying little to nothing about himself for years in his music, so Changes despite it's title is nothing new. Unlike Swift, Bieber makes no attempt at reconciling his public image; He was who He was but those days are over ok? He's married now, He's ready to be an adult and did I mention that He's married? He is SUPER into his wife, not Chance the Rapper into his wife, but damn near close. Now is that a problem, loving your wife? Hell no, but making corny ass music about it is a problem. There is a difference between something connecting with you on a personal level and something being just "personal". This album is always the later.

Purpose at least felt like it had a point of view, it had hits that were on the forefront of modern pop. This album is perfectly content to be as basic musically as possible. "Intentions" is a song that has been made about 20 times since trap took over pop and Quavo's verse only adds to both artists feeling like they are missing the mark. Would this song have been a smash five years ago? Probably. However today it feels totally dated. Lead single "Yummy" is perhaps the most egregious on the album. Breathy Bieber crooning through a song intended to be sexy, but ends up sounding like a fucking kidz bop track. Since Beiber went Christian his music has felt out of line with his personality. I mean let's not delude ourselves, Bieber likely never wrote a word of what He sings, but there is almost no passion in his voice for what he is saying. "Available" at least has some IDM samples going on, but that is about the only decent sounding production going on here. Don't let this bullshit redemption story fool you, Justin Bieber is exactly who He has always been this time no amount of PR polish is going to change that. His act it seems has finally run it's course. Let's hope.

2.0 out of 10