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Justice is full of songs that feel like production exercises lightly doused with a little Eau de Bieber, the musical equivalent of merchandising.
It is with some discomfort, confusion? – I must inform you that the first voice you hear on the new Justin Bieber album, Justice, is from Martin Luther King Jr .: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” King returns in the middle of the album, in an interlude that shows a speech about how a life without conviction and passion is not life at all, which is absolutely true.
King’s calls to action are indisputably powerful: they must be heard widely. And yet, like a framing device for an album by the 27-year-old pop star, they feel unmoored – a grand gesture in search of an equivalently ambitious (political, spiritual, emotional) commitment to reinforce it.
It only draws attention to the persistent underlying conundrum with all things Bieber, which is that despite some indelible successes, his fame far exceeds his catalog, and that throughout his career, openly or reluctantly, destructively or self-protective, she never has. He rested in one place for a long time, nor did he try to defend his own particularity.
That is why his latest album, Changes, Full of mid-level R&B that suited his slightly silky voice well, it was one of his most successful. It was not a resounding success, but it was consistent and reassuring, and remarkably free of baggage. It was also a reminder that perhaps Justin Bieber, the musician and performer, is not actively interested in the scale of the song that is normally required of someone as popular as Justin Bieber, the celebrity, or is not an especially suitable choice for her.
The disorganized, only sporadically strong Justice, however, it feels like a slap on the wrist to Changes, or the version of Bieber he nurtured. Instead of settling for one beat, this album scrolls through several: quasi new wave, Christian pop, acoustic soul, and more. Instead of Justice (RBMG / Def Jam Recordings), Bieber’s sixth studio album, is filled with songs that look like production exercises lightly doused with a little Eau de Bieber, the musical equivalent of merchandising.
A host of guest features serve as opportunities to try out different ways, with varying levels of success. The production of ‘I love you different, ‘with dancehall rapper Beam, languidly nods to the Caribbean, but not as effectively as Bieber’s success in 2015’Sorry. Nigerian star Burna Boy appears in ‘Loved by you, ‘but Bieber doesn’t match his guest’s casual seriousness.
‘Die for you‘is perhaps the most ambitious stylistic collision here. A fast-paced, synthetic duo with pop upstart Dominic Fike, dating back to the mid-1980s, but Bieber isn’t the kind of power singer who can get past the production flamboyance. The same is true in ‘Unstable, ‘with Kid Laroi, an Australian singer and rapper who is adept at a post-Juice WRLD groan – Bieber sings earnestly, as his partner leans into anguish.
Of the collaborations, the most successful is’Peaches, ‘a sneaky, sun-speckled R&B number featuring rising stars Daniel Caesar and Giveon, which finds Bieber in his loosest vocal form (though he was in even better vocal form when he debuted this song, solo, at the NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert).
More often, however, Justice tries to impose big top pop on Bieber: chords from John Hughes movie in ‘Wait, ‘or the catwalk bop of’SomebodyY. ‘In places, as in’Ghost, ‘Those impulses are at least fermented with acoustic guitar, and the change in his singing is remarkable: it goes from an accent piece to the main character.
Lyrically Justice focuses on songs about triumph over pitiful behavior, about preaching devotion to a more powerful entity, a wife, a God, who did not abandon you in a time of need. “You prayed for me when I had no faith / you believed in me when no one else did / It’s a miracle that you didn’t run away,” he emphatically sings in ‘How am I.
At the end of the album is’Lonelyy ‘, a poignant piano ballad he released last October that felt like the cleanest break from his old self that had ever committed to the song. These songs are Bieber at his most self-referential, the least messy, and also the strongest: they encapsulate an intimate and lingering feeling that runs through an album that goes to great lengths to distract itself from it.
Jon Caramanica c.2021 The New York Times Company
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