(Def Jam)
![Justin Bieber: Changes review – mid-tempo wedded bliss](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9c5410c3798c62f4cbb22511654d6078a7cc17a0/0_1201_3648_2189/master/3648.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=7f28e9f6f9b0fe7c375a8077e00d8326)
Nothing frames a pop album quite like a redemption narrative, and for
Justin Bieber this is his second in a row. While 2015’s Purpose, preceded by problems with the
police and a much publicised breakup, was full of culture-shifting hits, from the pleading Sorry to the bitter Love Yourself, Changes – created in the midst of health issues and a hasty marriage to model
Hailey Baldwin – finds Bieber swapping instant anthems for mid-tempo, trap-adjacent R&B often rendered frictionless by bedroom-centred wedded bliss. So on the tactile Available he coos: “Say I’m number one on your to-do list,” while Come Around Me’s “Do me like you miss me” hook swims around a modern approximation of 90s new jack swing.
There are welcome changes of pace – the rib-rattling Forever featuring Post Malone a highlight – but the tempo drops again for a suite of acoustic sketches that touch on God (the title track), patience (Confirmation) and, on ETA, the joys of online surveillance (“Drop me a pin so I can know your location”). It’s a subdued end to an album that feels like a purely selfish endeavour on Bieber’s part. After years of people-pleasing, perhaps that’s its biggest success.