Review: On ‘Changes,’ Justin Bieber finds salvation through hot married sex and chilled-out R&B

The most striking image in “Seasons� — the thinly veiled 10-part commercial that Justin Bieber has been rolling out piecemeal on YouTube to promote his fifth studio album — is the sight of the 25-year-old pop superstar zipping himself into a personal oxygen chamber.

Proof (if you required it) that pop superstars are nothing like the rest of us, it’s a blunt visual expression of what the documentary series makes clear in plenty of other ways: Bieber, scarred from the experience of global celebrity, is in deep need of protection. Again and again, we see the people around him — his wife, Hailey Baldwin; his manager, Scooter Braun; his one-time “swagger coach,� Ryan Good — doing all they can to create a kind of safe space around Bieber, who talks frankly in the show about having his nervous system wrecked at a young age by too much money, too many drugs, too much adulation.

The singer makes yet another cocoon for himself on “Changes,� a low-key set of gentle electro-R&B jams that depicts his relationship with Baldwin as a refuge from the unkind world he’s still not quite ready to reenter. Long on clean-toned guitars and drowsy soul grooves — and many, many words about the love of a good woman — it represents a distinct shift from the throbbing EDM of Bieber’s last album, 2015’s “Purpose�; its stylistic consistency marks a new approach, too, after the freelance dabbling Bieber did between LPs in far-flung collaborations with Luis Fonsi, David Guetta, Dan + Shay and others.

Yet R&B has always been where Bieber — who, don’t forget, came up under the tutelage of Usher — goes for comfort and redemption. It’s the natural home for his high, breathy voice and for the little vocal flourishes at which he excels; you can hear how gratified he is to have some space to stretch out in songs such as “Habitual� and “Available,� which sound like demos compared with the tight grid-like structures of “Purpose� hits such as “Sorry� and “What Do You Mean?�

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In these songs and others, “Changes� can recall “Journals,� the intimate collection of digital singles Bieber released in 2013, at the end of a year in which his paparazzi exploits (including his novel use of a restaurant’s mop bucket) put a serious dent in his popularity. Chief among the studio pros here? Poo Bear, who also worked behind the scenes on “Journals� — and who can be seen regularly in “Seasons,� one more protector swaddling Bieber as they compose the relaxed melodies and appealingly quirky lyrics here.

“Let’s not miss out on each other / Let’s get it in expeditiously,� he coos in “Come Around Me,� while “Intentions� deploys an unexpected financial-planning metaphor: “Heart full of equity, you’re an asset.� In “All Around Me� he describes the comforts of a long-term relationship like someone twice his age — then ends the track with a newborn’s squeal. (Perhaps there’s an announcement in store for the final episode of the YouTube series.)

It all suggests that Bieber is finally in a good place, though the question this very chill — and often very lovely — album poses for the singer is whether that place can overlap with the spot he once held at the center of pop. The sprinkling of on-trend trap drums indicate he’s thinking about it, as do streaming-bait guest spots by Post Malone and Travis Scott. And Bieber’s 127 million Instagram followers — that’s twice the number Drake has — prove the spot is there for the retaking if he wants it.

But the slow-burning “Changes� feels for the most part like a willful retreat from a scene that demands instant engagement. Which you’d say was precisely the point of the thing if Bieber weren’t headed out on a stadium tour in May. How this cozy, small-scaled stuff plays in those gigantic spaces is anyone’s guess. There’s only so much oxygen in the open air.