Album Review: Changes | Justin Bieber

This is Album #7/20 that I listened to for my 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 8 times for my review.

Here are some quick stats about Changes by Justin Bieber:

• Album #5

• Released February 14, 2020 (Last album release 2015)

• Album length: 47:56, 16 tracks

• Peaked at #1 on US Billboard 200 (3 weeks on the charts so far)

• Genre: R&B

• Metacritic score: 57/100

I was so excited for this album, but I ended up being pretty disappointed. Justin Bieber's last album, Purpose, is a favorite album for me and it's been 5 years since that came out. So I've really been looking forward to Justin's next album, and this was just not it. It was pretty basic. I was so hyped for this album, it would have been pretty easy to make me happy but this felt like such a lazy attempt. Justin is so talented and his voice does not shine through on these tracks. This was really just not what I was looking for after a 5 year break.

Here's a breakdown of the tracklist:

1. All Around Me

2. Habitual

3. Come Around Me

4. Intentions (feat. Quavo)*

5. Yummy*

6. Available

7. Forever (feat. Post Malone & Clever)

8. Running Over (feat. Lil Dicky)

9. Take It Out On Me

10. Second Emotion (feat. Travis Scott)

11. Get Me (feat. Kehlani)

12. E.T.A.*

13. Changes*

14. Confirmation

15. That's What Love Is*

16. At Least For Now

(bold- dislike, *- like)

Some of the songs are just too explicit and gross. I'm not a prude or anything, it's just kind of cringey to me. And it feels really inauthentic coming out of Justin's mouth. "Yummy" is one example. Everyone knows what that song is really about. Another example is "Come Around Me:" "When you come around me / Do me like you miss me / Even though you been with me." It's just kind of gross. It's not just the lyrics, but this whole genre just feels really inauthentic to what Justin should be doing.

I didn't like all the features on it. I just came here for Justin, I don't want to hear all these random people. And they weren't good additions to the tracks.

I like "Yummy" because it's catchy, but it's objectively bad. Most of the other songs that I liked, I liked because it sounded like it could have been on his previous album. The rest of the songs were just boring and basic. There weren't really any songs that I specifically disliked.

Justin is listed as a writer for all of the songs. This is along with 2-9 other writers. I don't believe that he had much input in the writing of these songs.

I will of course continue to follow Justin Bieber and I hope his next album is more authentic and has more effort put into it. I would rate this album a 4/10.

Have you listened to the album? Let me know your thoughts down below.