Changes

It's astounding to think that Bieber has been within the popular sphere of music for over a decade now, especially at how incredibly young he still is today at only twenty five years old. With over a decade under his belt, there is a certain expectation that as an artist Justin Bieber would start growing and evolving and perhaps even becoming more genuine or introspective.

Changes, instead, gives no sense of growth over the last decade. Instead, Justin Bieber effectively exists as the poster boy of mainstream stagnation. My first exposure to this album is likely the same as others, in the track Yummy that could not be a more vapid and unfortunate direction to take musically. The level of intentional grasping for exposure is by far the most disappointing aspect of the track; feeding the listener something generic, uninspired, and thoughtless and expecting the streams to come in based on name recognition and ineffective catchiness alone.

Had Yummy been the only guilty party on the album, perhaps Changes could have overcome the poor taste left from that song. This, of course, could not have been the case on this record. The opening three tracks feature forgettable beats and flavorless vocal performances. Intentions is perhaps just as obnoxious of a track as Yummy without the heavy studio push.

Moving forward on the album, things still don't feel a lot brighter. Running Over, the track featuring Lil Dicky, almost has me at a point where I can enjoy what's happening on the album; the beat is about as basic as it comes, but the vocal performances are at least a little more successfully delivered (regardless of the level of hate that Lil Dicky receives at this point in time). Most of this feeling immediately washes away on the follow up Take It Out On Me, which features a slew of continuously uninventive lyrical content and a beat that leaves you feeling empty. Following this, Second Emotion feels like every other song that exists in popular music - a genuine retread of everything I've heard over the last few years. Get Me is at the very least an attempt at something more complex but still feels hollow, especially given everything surrounding it.

I could continue to break down each track but that would offer the idea that these songs somehow become more interesting or creatively structured, outside of a more acoustic focus near the end. If you've somehow made it this far into the full record, then most of your hope should have evaporated by this point regardless of this minor differentiation. Changes does not in fact represent any sort of change in the style of Justin Bieber, nor does it represent a change in what exists in mainstream pop from this side of the market. Instead, it is merely a rinse and repeat of an already colorless shirt that continues to white wash even further.

Favorite track: Get Me