Love letter to Mrs to Bieber
Justin’s back with a romantic album inspired by his new wife
JUSTIN Bieber’s marriage to American model Hailey Baldwin has clearly given him much-needed stability.
The Canadian heartthrob took a break from music last year to focus on fixing some ‘deep rooted issues’ after admitting to feeling disillusioned during a world tour that often cast him as a troubled soul.
It has taken him four years to deliver a new studio album — a period in which he has also battled Lyme disease — but he has finally come up with the goods in Changes, a loved- up affair in thrall to Baldwin, whom he married in September 2018.
It’s no coincidence that his fifth album is being released on Valentine’s Day and comes packaged in a red sleeve.
Discovered by soul star Usher after posting cover versions of pop hits on YouTube, Bieber, 25, has been famous since his early teens, slowly edging away from bubblegum music towards futuristic R&B and, on 2015’s Purpose, electronic loops and fractured dance beats. Rather than branch out any further, he uses Changes to refine the styles that suit him best.
With no copies of the new album sent out in advance, reviewers were given a preview at a playback hosted by the singer himself in London this week.
Dressed in jeans, and sporting a new moustache, he chatted informally about the songs while standing behind a large DJ console sipping from a bottle of mineral water. Rather disconcertingly, he also sang along to many of the tracks, a move that could have backfired spectacularly if his new material wasn’t quite up to scratch.
Thankfully, Changes is generally a pretty strong return.
He was originally going to call the album Journals II — making it a companion piece to his 2013 singles compilation Journals — but revised his plans after acknowledging the challenges of a decade spent growing up in public. ‘Good or bad, we all go through things we can’t control,’ he added philosophically. ‘What we can control is how we react to those changes.’
He gave a thumbs-up from behind his DJ podium as romantic ballad Come Around Me was played and then danced along to Forever. ‘This one’s really cool.’
He also explained how Running Over was made with Lil Dicky, a comedian and environmentalist who is a ‘super talented’ rapper — and talked about his love for his wife. He even attempted ( unsuccessfully) to contact
Hailey in Los Angeles, using FaceTime.
As for the music, the album begins with a series of dreamy, mid- tempo electronic tracks. Come Around Me is a love song a little too high on autotune, but Intentions is a quirky synth duet with rapper Quavo.
On Available, Bieber showcases his trick of singing in the middle of his range before taking off into a soft falsetto. Brash pop hooks are in short supply, but my hunch is that these mellow moments will ultimately turn into earworms. A shift of gear becomes clear as the album progresses, with the electronic instrumentation of the early tracks giving way to the distinctive, fingerpicked guitars of ETA, That’s What Love Is and the title track, about ‘trusting God through the bad times’. There’s also, in At Least For Now, a song Bieber admits was heavily inspired by Tracy Chapman’s 1988 single Fast Car.
HAVING limited his most recent artistic exploits to one- off liaisons with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish (a remix of Billie’s Bad Guy), Bieber is now keen to re-boot his solo career. Changes won’t make us all Beliebers, but it’s a confident start.
THE notion of the oneman-band used to conjure up images of a singer with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and cymbals strapped between his knees. For Kevin Parker, an Australian who records as Tame Impala, the reality is different. An outstanding producer and guitarist who has worked with Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson, he mixes progressive rock with sugary pop.
Successful enough to sell out London’s O2 Arena and New York’s Madison Square Garden (he tours with a full backing band), Parker continues to mix and match genres on his fourth album The Slow Rush. Some of his melodies are undercooked, but he has added a personal touch by writing about his insecurities and romantic indecision.
‘ Will I be known and loved?,’ he asks on Borderline, before addressing a troubled relationship with his late father on Posthumous Forgiveness, a two-part epic which begins angrily before expressing compassion and Parker’s regret at never being able to tell his dad about recording at Abbey Road — and taking a phone call from Mick Jagger.
Guitars are thinner on the ground than before, with Breathe Deeper underpinned by Daft Punk-like electronics and Lost In Yesterday driven by a familiar synth motif.
On It Might Be Time, Parker sings of the fear of losing his mojo. On this evidence, there’s little chance of that.