The album features guest appearances from Quavo, Post Malone, Clever, Lil Dicky, Travis Scott, Kehlani, and Summer Walker.

Production was handled by Poo Bear on every track, Sasha Sirota, Tainy, Josh Gudwin, the Audibles, Kid Culture, Harv, Pierre, Laxcity, Boi-1da, Vinylz, CVRE, Jahaan Sweet, Philip Beaudreau, Tom Strahle, the Messengers, Sons of Sonix, and Joshua Williams.

[9] At the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bieber joined American singer Ariana Grande on stage to perform his 2015 single, "Sorry", which he then announced that a new album was coming soon.

[12] The lead single of the album, "Yummy", was released on January 3, 2020, and peaked within the top 10 in numerous countries, debuting at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.

[16] The 10-episode docu-series, Justin Bieber: Seasons premiered on January 27, 2020, sharing insights about his personal struggles including battling with health issues and overcoming drug addiction while detailing his return to music after cancelling the American stadium leg of his Purpose World Tour in 2017.

[35] Writing for AllMusic, Andy Kellman gave the "R&B-pop" album an overall positive review, particularly commending Bieber's vocal skills, describing his falsetto pleas as "neither bitter nor entitled, strictly genuine and adult".

[4] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times defined the album as "a low-key set of gentle electro-R&B jams that depicts his relationship with Hailey Baldwin, as a refuge from the unkind world he's still not quite ready to reenter".

[36] Rating the album two stars, Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos defined Changes as a "one-note toast to marital happiness" that is "sweet and tender, but ultimately shallow", stating that the tracks "are not bad, exactly, but they're almost universally forgettable, with little of the catchiness that's been Bieber's hallmark in the past".

[37] Insider's Courteney Larocca and Callie Ahlgrim were favourable towards Bieber's "pristine" vocal performance, but dismissed the "subpar" lyrics, concluding Changes is "ultimately a snooze fest".

[38] Emma Garland of Vice commented: "Each track is built on a simple hook or a looping beat, in favor of subtle melodies and lots of repetition, that laid back pace gives his voice room to luxuriate, but the songs often fall flat", with "no tension, no build".

Rather, it washes over you, with its mostly average beats and seemingly random cluster of guest features", adding that it is "full of vague platitudes about love from a singer who has yet to grow up".

O'Connor concluded that Bieber "hasn't come all that far" since the days of "Baby", as "a number of songs about his new wife Hailey Baldwin are so uninspired that he may as well be declaring his love for a household appliance".

[28] Rating the album two stars, Hannah Mylrea of NME wrote that Bieber's "limp comeback" results in a collection of "a knackering, loved-up slog lacking substance", that is "overly reliant on trendy production and profound(ish) romantic proclamations".

[29] Evening Standard's David Smyth expressed his disappointment in the album's subject matter, but complimented its production: "In fact, so single-minded is his [Bieber] approach this time that it feels like she's [Baldwin] his only intended audience", and thus Bieber's audience at his tour "are going to be underwhelmed by the unchanging, lounging pace of the new material, gently ticking beats and lack of memorable choruses".

[27] Rating the album a 4.5 out of 10, Jayson Greene of Pitchfork wrote that "Changes settles into a middle-distance, stream-friendly murmur that is more sleepy than salacious", adding that its songs "are all cold angles and frictionless surfaces, devoid of intimacy and heat".

[40] Writing for Clash, Nick Roseblade opined that the main problem with Changes is that "it isn't exciting or dynamic and suffers from dragging in places", citing the "lack of variation" on the album, as a reason.