POP/ROCK
Justin Bieber, "Changes" (Def Jam)
The most striking image in "Seasons" — the 10-part commercial that Bieber rolled out on YouTube ahead of last week's release of his fifth studio album — is the sight of the pop superstar zipping himself into an oxygen chamber. It's a blunt visual expression of what the docuseries makes clear in plenty of other ways: Bieber, 25, scarred from the experience of global celebrity, is in deep need of protection.
He makes a cocoon for himself on "Changes," a low-key set of gentle electro-R&B jams that depicts his relationship with wife Hailey Baldwin as a refuge from the unkind world he's still not quite ready to re-enter. Long on clean-toned guitars and drowsy soul grooves — and words about the love of a good woman — it represents a shift from the throbbing EDM of Bieber's last album, 2015's "Purpose." Yet R&B has always been where he goes for comfort and redemption.
For all the personal stability it seems to reflect, the question this very chill — and often very pretty — album poses for Bieber is how dedicated he is to reclaiming his spot at the center of pop. Sure, there are on-trend trap drums sprinkled here and there; sure, Post Malone and Travis Scott put in guest spots. But "Changes" mostly feels like a willful retreat from a scene that demands instant engagement. Which you'd say was precisely the point if Bieber weren't headed out on a stadium tour in May.
Mikael wood, Los Angeles Times
Billie Eilish, "No Time to Die" (Interscope)
Eyebrows were raised when the Grammy-dominating teen pop star was picked to do the theme to the next James Bond movie because, well, it's usually best if you can sing. "Bond" themes have customarily demanded this big, swoony sort of exploit.
Eilish has delivered an Eilish song. "No Time to Die" is a quavering, drab thing that doesn't have tension, or life, or drama, or pretty much anything interesting. A theme is supposed to be more than incidental music that burbles innocently in the background. Eilish's vocal range moves from whisper to coo, veering from that only for an instant, just at the end. James Bond deserves so much better.
