On February 14th, 2020, Justin Bieber released his new album Changes. Unfortunately, the album consists of songs that don’t seem to follow any changes in variation.

Upon first examination of the album, 17 songs are included with other artists being featured such as Post Malone, Kehlani and Travis Scott. Even then, the majority of the songs continue to sound similar to one another, making it difficult for someone to not zone out to the album without realizing different songs are playing. To me, I would expect an album with 17 songs to have some variety in the songs provided. Unfortunately, Changes does not provide that for me. 

Each of the songs on the album opens up with a similar bass line, ultimately creating uniformity across the entire album, but taking away from variety.

Taking a look into some of the songs on the album, “Available” stuck out to me as a call out for desperation. Of course, Bieber’s desire for his significant other is strong, but the lyrics “I’m available, yeah, for you I am, don’t mean to sound desperate,” do sound desperate. Beiber continues to sing “I get frustrated when you’re busy, lately that’s been more than often, baby, what is this? It’s like, do you even miss me? Feeling less than priority,” Sorry Bieber, maybe acknowledging your significant other holds their own life would be good for a happy healthy relationship, but then again, that’s a personal opinion. The song came off as clingy and a cry of insecurity on Bieber’s part.

The following song on the album “Forever” continues to sound like a display of insecurity. Lyrics sung “Do you wanna look at me forever, ever, ever?” only reaches for an ego Bieber holds, acknowledging his appearance. 

“Come Around Me” seemed to be the only song I somewhat enjoyed, solely because the outro contained the ringing of a Facetime call, hitting a nostalgic note with me. Along with this, the song was able to end smoothly with the fading out of the beat and singing. The rest of the song was very repetitive with the lyrics “When you come around me, treat me like you miss me,” repeated over and over again, further proving the lack of variation.

Majority of the music Bieber sings is in second person, giving off an awkward sentiment, especially in “Yummy”. Lyrics “Yeah, you got that yummy, yum, that yummy, yum, that yummy, yummy,” As annoying as the lyrics are, the beat is catchy which makes the song easy to get stuck in your head. Still, there was no substance, but there was an uncomfortable feeling.

Following the uncomfortable state of mind I maintained after hearing “Yummy”, the song “Intentions” was sung in second person of course. Unfortunately, lyrics such as “Yeah, these are my only intentions, stay in the kitchen, cooking up, cut your own bread, heart full of equity, you’re an asset,” Interesting how Bieber chooses to narrate a sexism in his music, describing a significant other in the kitchen, following an age old stereotype of women staying in the kitchen. and men making the money. After this was caught on, I lost all interest in the rest of the album.

Bieber’s album contained music that followed similar beats and repetitive lyrics. Although the music was catchy, there was not much substance in the lyrics Beiber sings.

2/5