On February 14, 2020, Justin Bieber finally released his long-awaited album “Changes,” five years after his last album in 2015 titled “Purpose.” Containing 17 tracks, “Changes” is an R&B album all about his love for his wife, model Hailey Bieber, formerly known as Hailey Baldwin. The album includes features from Quavo, Post Malone, Clever, Lil Dicky, Travis Scott, and Kehlani, and three singles released beforehand.

The first track “All Around Me,” is fitting for the introduction of the album, as it is a perfect indicator of how the rest of the album will sound — boring and repetitive. Throughout the entire song, it felt like there should’ve been something more that would overall improve the song, but it never came. Ironically, there was no change. The verses and choruses sounded the same, and there was no build-up or anything that would make the song stand out. 

“Yummy,” the fifth track of the album, is one of the three singles that were released before the entire album. Needless to say, this single speaks for the other two – the singles of this album are some of the worst songs that could’ve been chosen between all the tracks. “Yummy” is no doubt the worst song of the album. While catchy, it can quickly become annoying even after a few plays. This album is about his deep, meaningful love for Hailey Bieber, and the fact that it was chosen as a single to represent the album is disappointing. “Yummy” clearly demonstrates Bieber’s lack of progression musically since his previous albums. It sounds like a generic pop song with the bare-minimum effort put into it, and the lyrics prove that: “Yeah, you got that yummy, yum // That yummy, yum // That yummy, yummy.”

The sixth track “Available,” is one of the first songs encountered with a better sound. Once again, like all of the lyrics have been so far, it is about his love for Hailey Bieber. Bieber’s vocals on this track are gorgeous and “Available” is one of the first tracks in the album to really highlight that aspect of his music. 

The eighth track “Running Over,” featuring Lil Dicky, also speaks for many of the other songs. For one, it speaks for the various features included in the album — they are unnecessary, many of them even making the songs worse, and Lil Dicky’s part in this song is a great example of that. “Running Over” speaks for the lazy writing and terrible lyricism in the album which lacks depth and, at this point, is getting extremely repetitive. Eighth track of the album, and it is still only about Hailey with the same type of lovey-dovey lyrics. The lyrics are especially bizarre and weird in this song when Lil Dicky says, “I got all up on your IG and was scrolling down for hours // I got back to 2015 and you started looking young, so I stopped (oh).” The beat of “Running Over” sounds the same as all of the other songs as well. Again, there is no change.

“Take It Out On Me” is the ninth track, and the song has a thumpy beat that makes it stand out compared to the others, making the song sound more lively. This track shows the variety and the change that has been missing so far in the album in terms of the beat. In this song, Bieber wants Hailey Bieber to know that she can trust him and take out her stress and frustrations out onto him.

The twelfth track, “E.T.A.,” is another great song off of the album that also provided variety into this dull album. It sounds more like R&B compared to the rest of the songs. “E.T.A.” wonderfully exposes his beautiful vocals and showed just how talented Bieber can be. He hit several high notes and his singing was stunning in this track. Bieber’s harmonies along with the electric guitar managed to make this song even better.

The fifteenth track “That’s What Love Is” felt like it was missing something more. It sounded incomplete. Although his vocals were on point, it did not manage to save this song. “That’s What Love Is” felt flat and boring, and the electric guitar riff was mundane throughout the whole song. Some of the lines in this song were weird as well, such as, “Ooh, and you can trust me // After all the lies I told you // Yeah, that’s what love is.” Is trusting a liar suddenly true love?

Overall, the album was unfortunately very underwhelming and the production felt rushed, despite Bieber having five years to work on this album. The features were unnecessary, the beats were all too familiar and repetitive, and the lyrics were tiring, lazy, superficial, and questionable. Most of the songs sounded the same and all blended together, with only a few outshining the others. 

Bieber had potential, as proven with his great vocals, but was wasted to an album that tried too hard to become a smash hit. The songs are not too bad, but there is nothing memorable or groundbreaking. Unlike the album title, Bieber did not progress, improve, or make any changes to his music.

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