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Changes is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer Justin Bieber.

Background
Following several public incidents in 2014, Justin Bieber's fourth studio album Purpose (2015) was released (Sputnikmusic rev). Summarized Sputnikmusic rev, it surprised critics and listeners and "projected Bieber as a legitimate artistic force", with a "boatload of hooks, booming instrumentals, a melodramatic execution, and some soaring melodies that helped certify the intended drama".

To promote the album, Youtube released the ten-episode docu-series Justin Bieber: Seasons (2020), depicting Bieber's following his recovery from drug use and mental illness as well as the production of Changes (Sputnikmusic rev, The Guardian album rev).

Composition
Although featuring trap percussion and "woozy" synthesizers similar to Purpose (Clash rev), Changes moves from the 2015's album bombast to a more low-key and ethereal style, consisting of air-y electronic sounds and, in some songs, an acoustic guitar (Sputnikmusic rev). A few songs deviate, such as the Post Malone-featuring "Forever", "Intentions" which contains a mumble rap verse of Quavo, and "Running Over" which guests comedy rapper Lil Dicky (Observer rev, Sputnikmusic rev).

Critical reception
Generally, in comparison to Bieber's previous albums, reviewers found Changes more mature, particularly in his vocal performance. A.V. Club rev reported more confidence and "emotional nuance" in the performer, and to the ear of AllMusic Rev, "singing seems to come more naturally to him, and his falsetto pleas are neither bitter nor entitled, strictly genuine and adult." However, critics also found it monotonous, slow, un-innovative, and excessively long, a Sputnikmusic rev deriding the middle four songs of the tracklist as forgettable filler (Clash rev, Evening Standard rev, Paste rev, Rolling Stone rev, Sputnikmusic rev). The lyrics were criticized as unpleasant and "sanitized", critics suggesting they were only meant for Baldwin, Paste rev suggesting "you'll probably want to duck out to use the bathroom halfway through" (Evening Standard rev, Pitchfork rev).

Slant Magazine rev and Alexis Petris rev were critical of methods to perfect Bieber's performance, such as constant re-recordings and excessive Auto-Tune, reasoning they prevented any human emotional sentiments the lyrics could have had. Rolling Stone rev stamped the lyrics as "often unimaginative and cliché [...] like they were solely written to be used in #relationshipgoals Instagram posts". He elaborated that this failed to take advantage of the humor of the main theme, "the logistics of having sex when you are both hot, young, and working in fields that require a lot of time apart".

A.V. Club rev praised the moments about Bieber's personal journey as the most relatable. The Independent rev called Bieber's singing "strangely characterless" and "as though he's talking to himself while waiting for an Uber".

Listeners expressed on Twitter how Changes' instrumentals resembled ringtones (AV Club rev). Its low-key style was also criticized for the lack of memorable hooks (Sputnikmusic rev, A.V. Club rev, Evening Standard rev). Pitchfork rev explained that the music "settles into a middle-distance, stream-friendly murmur that is more sleepy than salacious", joking the album "has all the glow and eroticism of an airport terminal". AV Club explained that it "sounds like the kind of inoffensive music you/d hear while trying on clothes in a store dressing room lit by harsh fluorescent lighting". According to Rolling Stone rev, Bieber's move away from a period where he capitalized current pop trends, which began with Journals, was lamentable in a context where "pop itself becomes more genre-blurred and undefinable with every passing year". He also reported the album lacking Journals' "hints of messiness in execution" and "dangerous eroticism".