Review: "Changes" by Justin Bieber..

It’s been five years since American popstar Justin Bieber dropped his album “Purpose” which saw Bieber hit the heights of his fame with songs “Love Yourself” hitting number one on the ARIA single charts however Bieber ended up cancelling a world tour citing a need to take a break before suffering addiction and then getting married to his now wife Hailey Baldwin so I thought that there was a big chance that “Changes” could be an interesting listen especially if Justin could channel everything he has been through and drilled into his emotions around events in his life to make an interesting and somewhat fascinating album and given that Justin Bieber was pursuing an R’n’B vibe, I was curious so was “Changes” as interesting as I had hoped?

Well no, we didn’t get anything close to an interesting album sonically or especially lyrically as it seems like Justin Bieber and the bevy of songwriters and producers which included Timbaland, Poo Bear, Ski Mask the Slump God, Travis Scott and Post Malone weren’t interested in making an interesting and diverse album where Justin Bieber opens up about his life, they were more interested in creating an album that’s bereft of effort and sounds like a modern day Chris Brown album without the god damn auto tune plus the same grossness and underlying toxicness of a modern Chris Brown album.

When I say bereft of effort, the lack of effort begins with the sound of this album which basically takes all the bad elements of music from the 2010s and turns a majority this album into a generic slurry of tired trap and pop tropes straight out of the mid to 2010s, “Changes” is nowhere near close to being R’n’B because I will not sit here and believe that this lifeless, passionless, devoid of creativity and lack of energy is supposed to be rhythm and blues music, in my experience with R’n’B listening to the likes of Jhene Aiko or even Usher’s best album back in the day, they had passion, energy, soul and the music while not always perfect showed vision, creativity and a direction/purpose, I can’t say that any of that for “Changes”. Sound wise this album is boring by the time I’d heard “Available”, I was wondering why I was torturing myself.

Every single song bar the last few songs sound the same with the same sounding trap with hints of bass guitar and the occasional synth that fits with nothing on the song for good measure, Bieber is basically doing the Chris Brown meets Drake sound from the mid-2010s in 2020 although it’s not surprising considering how much Bieber has come to Brown’s defence calling him a legend and ‘king of R’n’B and collaborated with Brown to horrendous results.

The last few songs on this album are basically Bieber and an acoustic guitar but they also run together and start feeling like they sound the god damn same, there’s nothing positive to be said about the instrumentation on this thing.

As for the lyrics, I don’t expect Justin Bieber to write music akin to that of a Father John Misty or anyone else but my god, these  lyrics have no emotional depth or pathos to them and follow a very set structure except when there is a collaborator involved on the song, a song like the album’s title track “Changes” where Bieber sings about some days he might push further or not in the verses but then in the chorus sings “I’m goin’ through changes (x3)..Doesn’t mean I’ll change” so if you are going through changes but not willing to make the changes doesn’t mean you are changing at all, Justin, he also doesn’t outline how he is going to change or what changes he has actually made to be a better husband to his wife although when you look at who was behind the song writing, it’s not surprising it’s a clusterfuck given Nasri Atweh was behind Magic’s 2014 hit “Rude!” and Poo Bear recently worked on the cacophonous disaster that was the last Zac Brown band album.

Also if you are expecting a good hook, you are in hard luck, most of the hooks are these repetitive lazily written things that go nowhere close to being memorable except for “Yummy” which I have already talked about at length. 

The lyrical gangbang continues, on “Available” which could be interpreted as this relationship being abusive because Bieber is complaining that she is busy and that she belongs in his bed, you know not working or providing for Bieber so he can live his lifestyle but she should just stay in bed all day as though that is going to pay the bills or pay for groceries etc, there’s this clinginess that infects this song and makes it icky to say the least, this is also the same thing that pervades on “E.T.A” where Bieber is desperate for her to get home or give him her estimated time of arrival presumably so she and him can go to bed, there’s just something borderline abusive about the writing of some of these songs.

Then there’s the most recent single with Quavo (we’ll get to the collaborators on this thing in a moment), “Intentions” where Bieber sings “Heart full of equity, you’re an asset” which could be very much misinterpreted as this girl being Bieber’s property! Also “Stay in the kitchen, cookin’ up, got your own bread”. Hey Justin, it’s 2020, men can make bread to, the kitchen isn’t a space confined to just a woman! The whole song is just cringey and raises a lot of red flags. It’s almost sad that Quavo’s verse while not great is the best part of the song.

So let’s deal with the collaborations, Post Malone’s verse while his worst since “Stoney” is delivered with a passion that doesn’t match anything else on “Forever”, Kehlani is just about the best thing on “Get Me”, Travis Scott clearly decided he was just having an off day and phoned it in on “Second Emotion” and as for Lil Dicky on “Running Over”? Like anyone would expect good quality from Lil Dicky, he slips a basketball reference in all before telling this girl he’ll kiss her breasts all tenderly…ewww.

This album does not deserve the most generic of passes, music has evolved and changed from the sounds that were popular in 2015/16 when Justin released Purpose which at least had a pulse, some passion and creativity behind it, you could at least appreciate songs like “Sorry” and “Love Yourself”, we are moving beyond the trap sound especially as you look at what is ruling iTunes right now, this album is a lazy, generic, slapdash slog that is actually an insult to background noise, don’t punish your friends and family with this, play “Purpose” or even Usher’s albums, they are load better than this and those reviews you Beliebers are reading and most likely pissed at? Those reviews likely had more effort put into them than Justin Bieber or anyone associated with this album put into the writing and recording of it. 

Changes gets a very light 3/10

Domestic Violence is too big to just simply be a mistake, Justin.

This isn't very musical but it involves music stars and as this is serious, I won't be mucking around too much especially as we are dealing with the issue of domestic violence which Justin Bieber has somehow managed to claim on Instagram that Chris Brown only made a mistake when he assaulted Rihanna in 2009 despite Brown's history of violence against women since the Rihanna incident.

Let me make this very clear now, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHOULD NEVER BE REDUCED TO A SIMPLE MISTAKE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS A CRIME THAT COSTS LIVES, RUINS FAMILIES AND DESTROYS COMMUNITIES. IT'S IMPACTS ARE TOO BIG TOO SIMPLY BE A MISTAKE.

So I wrote Justin a little something...I doubt he'll read it but hey, I do have hope. 

Dear Justin Bieber,

I am sad that I have to write this letter but it’s a case where you have so many young fans that are influenced by what you say on social media be it on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that I couldn’t let your Instagram post about Chris Brown slide especially the bit about his assault of Rihanna being a ‘mistake’.

A mistake is something like burning the food, turning the TV off at the socket instead of turning off the vacuum cleaner or even wetting your pants, things that are embarrassing but can be fixed easily enough and you learn from them however domestic violence is not just simply a ‘mistake’ especially when it has serious and traumatic consequences for the victim who will likely live with the physical, emotional and mental trauma of that assault for the REST OF THEIR LIVES if they haven’t been murdered by their abuser.

Domestic violence can also trigger drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and not to mention creates an environment of fear within a family that can have consequences of breaking up a family and destroying whole communities.

You were saying bullying is not okay, well, bullying is a method abusers use to isolate the victim 

Now you know the impact of domestic violence, let’s talk about your mate Chris Brown and systematically go through his record because its MORE THAN ONCE that he has been violent toward women. There’s even a Rolling Stone timeline of his abuse of women which only goes as far as 2016, here it is for your own perusal: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/timeline-of-chris-browns-history-of-violence-towards-women-103402/club-shove-june-2013-103999/

Oh and last year, Brown was arrested for assaulting a photographer in a nightclub in 2017.

Justin, Brown might have a whole load of musical ability but his record as an abusive human being speaks more than any talent he might have and really given the women in your life, you should know better than to claim that committing abusive behaviour is a mistake because its not, domestic violence costs lives and communities and it makes me sad to see that, even despite being loved by so many teenage girls who will enter (hopefully) loving relationships and being married to a young woman, that you are enabling an abuser like Chris Brown.

Hopefully one day, you’ll understand this, Justin, and re-think your posts praising Chris Brown.