Changes (Justin Bieber album)
Changes is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer Justin Bieber. It was released on February 14, 2020, by Def Jam Recordings and RBMG serving as the follow-up to Purpose. The album contains features from Quavo, Post Malone, Clever, Lil Dicky, Travis Scott, Kehlani, and Summer Walker, with production including Adam Messinger, The Audibles, Boi-1da, Harv, Nasri, Poo Bear, Sasha Sirota, Tainy, and Vinylz, as well as Los Angeles Lakers center and 2x NBA Champion JaVale McGee, using his music name Pierre. It is primarily an R&B, pop and electro-R&B album with trap elements.
Changes was preceded by two singles: "Yummy" was released as the lead single on January 3, 2020, which debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. "Intentions" featuring Quavo of the hip-hop trio Migos, was released as the second single on February 7, 2020. On January 28, 2020, "Get Me" featuring American singer Kehlani was released as a promotional single. For additional promotion of the album, Bieber's 10-episode docu-series, premiered on January 27, 2020. The series was described as an in-depth look on his musical creation process. On February 8, 2020, Bieber performed his first Saturday Night Live performance in seven years. Changes will also be supported by the Changes Tour.
Changes debuted atop the US Billboard 200 chart, selling a first-week sales total of 231,000 album-equivalent units, which was considerably less than the first-week sales of Purpose in the country, which moved 649,000 units. Changes received mixed reviews from music critics, who were favorable towards Bieber's vocal performance and certain elements of the production, but criticized the album's lyricism and the lack of variation between songs. Similar to Purpose, Bieber released a series of dance videos for each of the tracks on the album, titled "Changes: The Movement".
Background
At the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bieber joined American singer Ariana Grande on stage to perform his track "Sorry"; he then announced that an album was coming soon.On October 27, 2019, Bieber announced that he would only drop his upcoming studio album before Christmas if his Instagram post reached 20 million likes, however it failed to do so. The post has since been deleted and the release was consequently postponed.
Release and promotion
The lead single "Yummy" was released on January 3, 2020, and peaked within the top 10 in numerous countries, debuting at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. It was remixed a month later on February 3, 2020, with American singer Summer Walker. The album title along with its cover were revealed on January 28, 2020. The announcement was accompanied by the release of the promotional single "Get Me" featuring American singer Kehlani. The second official single, "Intentions", featuring American rapper Quavo, was released on February 7, 2020.On February 8, 2020, Bieber performed his first Saturday Night Live performance in seven years. He was introduced by the host RuPaul, before performing "Yummy" and "Intentions", with Quavo there to perform his verse in "Intentions".
''Justin Bieber: Seasons''
The 10-episode docu-series, premiered on January 27, 2020, sharing insights about his career and detailing his return to music after canceling the American stadium leg of his Purpose World Tour in 2017. The series was described as an in-depth look on his musical creation process.Changes Tour
The album will be supported by the Changes Tour. The tour was scheduled to begin on May 14, 2020, in Seattle at the CenturyLink Field, but on April 1, 2020, it was announced that the tour will be postponed until further notice due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Critical reception
Changes was met with mixed reviews from music critics. Some praised the production and Bieber's vocal performance on the album, while some criticised its repetitive tone and lyrical content. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 57, based on sixteen reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".Writing for AllMusic, Andy Kellman gave the "R&B-pop" album an overall positive review, particularly commending Bieber's vocal skills, describing his falsetto pleas as "neither bitter nor entitled, strictly genuine and adult". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times defined the album as "a low-key set of gentle electro-R&B jams that depicts his relationship with Hailey Baldwin, as a refuge from the unkind world he's still not quite ready to reenter". Noting the trap beats prevalent in the album, Wood commented that "the sprinkling of on-trend trap drums indicate he's thinking about it, as do streaming-bait guest spots by Post Malone and Travis Scott". Variety
Rating the album two stars, Rolling Stones Brittany Spanos defined Changes as a "one-note toast to marital happiness" that is "sweet and tender, but ultimately shallow", stating that the tracks "are not bad, exactly, but they're almost universally forgettable, with little of the catchiness that's been Bieber's hallmark in the past". Spanos called the album as the "honeymoon phase in R&Bieber form", thus "sweet, uncomplicated, and maybe just a bit hard to imagine lasting forever", with Bieber's "charming malleability as an artist" missing. She added that the album is devoid of the "dangerous eroticism" of Bieber's 2013 project, Journals. Insiders Courteney Larocca and Callie Ahlgrim were favourable towards Bieber's "pristine" vocal performance, but dismissed the "subpar" lyrics, concluding Changes is "ultimately a snooze fest". They pointed out "Habitual" as "easily the best track" on the album, while "All Around Me" is "underwhelming" as the opening track. Emma Garland of Vice commented: "Each track is built on a simple hook or a looping beat, in favour of subtle melodies and lots of repetition, that laid back pace gives his voice room to luxuriate, but the songs often fall flat", with "no tension, no build". She highlighted the "formulaic arrangements and wandering melodies", which struggle "to hit home in a major way", like Purpose did.
In a two-star review, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent stated that Changes "isn't so much an album that would rile you to the point of turning it off. Rather, it washes over you, with its mostly average beats and seemingly random cluster of guest features", adding that it is "full of vague platitudes about love from a singer who has yet to grow up". O'Connor concluded that Bieber "hasn't come all that far" since the days of "Baby", as "a number of songs about his new wife Hailey Baldwin are so uninspired that he may as well be declaring his love for a household appliance". Rating the album two stars, Hannah Mylrea of NME wrote that Bieber's "limp comeback" results in a collection of "a knackering, loved-up slog lacking substance", that is "overly reliant on trendy production and profound romantic proclamations". She added that it is "a disappointing comeback from an artist who has a track record in creating hits", as it is "one romp that never reaches climax". Evening Standards David Smyth expressed his disappointment in the album's subject matter, but complimented its production: "In fact, so single-minded is his approach this time that it feels like she's his only intended audience", and thus Bieber's audience at his tour "are going to be underwhelmed by the unchanging, lounging pace of the new material, gently ticking beats and lack of memorable choruses".
Rating the album a 4.5 out of 10, Jayson Greene of Pitchfork wrote that "Changes settles into a middle-distance, stream-friendly murmur that is more sleepy than salacious", adding that its songs "are all cold angles and frictionless surfaces, devoid of intimacy and heat". He pointed out that "nearly every song on Changes resembles every other in tempo, arrangement, and often in lyrics, which seem to be sourced from the same 10 or 15 pastel candy hearts". Writing for Clash, Nick Roseblade opined that the main problem with Changes is that "it isn't exciting or dynamic and suffers from dragging in places", citing the "lack of variation" on the album, as a reason.
In June 2020, Billboard named Changes as one of "The 50 best albums of 2020 ".
Commercial performance
Changes debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 231,000 album-equivalent units, including 126,000 pure album sales in its first week. It is Bieber's seventh US number-one album. Bieber became the youngest soloist to have seven US number-one albums at the age of 25 with the record being previously held by Elvis Presley at the age of 26. In its second week, the album dropped to number four on the chart, earning an additional 66,000 units. In its third week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, earning 62,000 units.It additionally debuted atop the Canadian Albums Chart as well as the UK Albums Chart, where it became Bieber's second number-one album.
Track listing
Credits adapted from Tidal, Google Play, and Apple Music.Notes
- signifies a vocal producer
- signifies an additional producer
- "Take It Out on Me" contains samples from "Too Deep", written by Majid Al Maskati, Maneesh Bidaye, Benjamin Bush, Daniel Daley, Stephen Garrett, Anthony Jefferies, and Timothy Mosley, as performed by dvsn.
- "Come Around Me" contains samples from "Mejor Así", written by Vladimir Dotel & Bryan Dotel, as performed by Ilegales a Grammy-nominated Dominican merenhouse trio
Personnel
Performers and vocals
- Justin Bieber – vocals
- Quavo – vocals
- Post Malone – vocals
- Clever – vocals
- Lil Dicky – vocals
- Travis Scott – vocals
- Kehlani – vocals
- Summer Walker – vocals
- Jason 'Poo Bear' Boyd – background vocals
- Sasha Sirota – guitar
- Marco 'Tainy' Masís – drums, keyboards, bass
- Bernard Harvey – keyboards, bass
- Daniel Hackett – keyboards
- Jun Ha Kim – bass, keyboards, guitar
- Phil Beaudreau – drum programming, bass, keyboards, background vocals
- Tom Strahle – guitar
- Nasri Atweh – guitar
- Moses Samuels – keyboards
Production
- Justin Bieber – executive production
- Scooter Braun – executive production
- Jason 'Poo Bear' Boyd – co-executive production, production, vocal production
- Josh Gudwin – co-executive production, production, vocal production
- Sasha Sirota – production
- Marco 'Tainy' Masís – production
- The Audibles – production
- Kid Culture – production
- HARV – production
- JaVale 'Pierre' McGee – production
- Louis Bell – Post Malone vocal production
- Vinylz – production
- Boi-1da – production
- CVRE – production
- Jahaan Sweet – co-production
- Phil Beaudreau – production
- Tom Strahle – production
- Nasri Atweh – production
- Adam Messinger – production
- Sons of Sonix – production
- Joshua Williams – production
Technical
- Josh Gudwin – engineering, mixing
- Chris 'Tek' O'Ryan – engineering
- Chenao Wang – assistant engineer
- Kory Welty – additional engineering
- Elijah Marrett-Hitch – mixing assistant
- Louis Bell – Post Malone vocals recording
- David Burd – Lil Dicky vocals recording
- Mark Parsift – Kehlani vocals recording
- Phil Beaudreau – engineering
- Summer Walker – vocals recording
- Kendall Roark Bailey – vocals recording, mixing
Artwork
- Jessica Severn – design and packaging
- Chris Shelley – design and packaging
- Joe Termini – photography
- Jennifer Beal – package production
- Andy Proctor – package production
Charts