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Changesintroduced the world to a newJustin Bieber.
But as he criticized the Recording Academy, Bieber also set the stage for what was next.
Bieber backed up his claim a month laterwhen he released Anyone,his most undeniable pop song in years.
Now,withJusticeout, the turn looks even sharper.
He announced the album and titleby tweeting a string of vague platitudesabout justice and healing.
Its a lot to process from Bieber, whos givenfewinterviews on the new music.
Both collaborators described the fast-paced, detail-oriented process behind Biebers sonic pivot.
Every producer and writer, we all had that same idea.
The original plan was to do two albums back-to-back, Harv says, but to keep the processes separate.
We literally started from scratch, he adds.
People know Justin as a pop star, he says of the shift.
He was like, I want it to sound like a 90s rock song, Harv says.
But lets make it now.
That energybleeds into live performances of the music, too.
Harv especially anticipates playing Anyone, which he calls a stadium-status song, to that size of a crowd.
The approach pays off onJustice;critics have praised its cohesion.
(EvenPitchfork called itBiebers smoothest album-length statement to date.)
Its a format, how we track-list the album, Harv explains of the 16 songs.
We kind of let the album grow as you listen to it.
That was a moment for me to be like,Okay, its about the full body of work.
The sessions became less about sound than a unifying spirit of the work.
On all the songs they worked on, Harv and Aldae said the features came from Bieber himself.
With Peaches, Bieber switched to A&R mode right after cutting his vocals.
Like two hours later, he FaceTimed me, Harv says.
Justin was like, Yo, like I think we got one.
Im like, What do you mean?
He was like, I got Giveon on, on the feature.
Then, about a month later, Harv got another call.
Just how Justin is, hell FaceTime me out of nowhere, he says.
He was like, Hey, lets get Daniel Caesar on it.
Some of the other features, though, came down to the wire.
And yes, Biebers feature choices also extended to Dr. King.
At first I was a little confused when I saw MLK in the credits, he says.
A lot of classic albums have an insert at the beginning, something to bring you into the album.
MLK, one of the greatest speakers of all time.
In December, Bieber had a meeting with his collaborators about the meaning driving the project.
He was very vulnerable with us about wanting to put that goodness into the songs.
But to Harv, they go hand in hand.
If you listen to the words, its putting love back in, he says.
It sounds like big pop, but if you listen to the lyrics, its very simple love songs.
Having worked with Bieber for a decade, Harv says he saw the album coming from a genuine place.
Where he is in his life is probably the best Ive ever seen him.
He put all of that into this album.
