Journals (album)

While touring with his Believe Tour throughout 2012 and 2013, Justin Bieber managed to write new songs every day. According to his manager, Scooter Braun, the writing process had him "writing one to two songs a day for the entire tour and [...] label[ing] them by the city he wr[o]te them in." In January 2013, Bieber confirmed he was writing for a new album, as well as American R&B singer R. Kelly that confirmed he was working with Bieber on the album. Meanwhile, in June of the same year, he confirmed a new album, the rest of the Believe Tour and a movie for 2013. In July, Braun gave an interview for MTV News, where he discussed the album, claiming: "For this project, we want to do things a little bit differently. And there are more songs than 10 or 12, so if you have more music and you have more things you want to express, you gotta think out the box, and [think like] ’How do I get this out there in a unique way where it gets directly to my fans and I can express myself through music directly to them?’ And I think that's what it's about when you have people who are incredibly creative, things happen." In August, Bieber confirmed he was working with American rapper Future. It was also reported he was working with Juicy J, Ludacris and Big Sean. In December, he also confirmed he was working with Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne. As executive producer, Justin enlisted previous collaborators such as Rodney Jerkins, Maejor, Diplo and Sir Nolan, while working with a range of new R&B producers such as The Audibles, Andre Harris, D.K. the Punisher, Soundz, Chef Tone, T-Minus, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd and others. Boyd became one of the most frequent collaborators on the album, writing with Bieber several songs as well as producing some. According to the producer, Bieber suggested they to "flip those Craig David chords and [...] create something." By doing so, he came up with the song "Recovery", a song that was finished at Cherry Beach Sound in Toronto. As he recalled, the process had Bieber hearing Boyd songs and selected them to sing, and many songs from the producer turned into songs off Journals. Boyd continued: "He [Bieber] just felt them so much, so strongly. It was just a matter of me letting go of the fact that I don't care about me being a singer more so than I care about putting great music out into the universe. Then I was able to do it. The songs that I felt like were too mature, we changed them up to fit him like a custom suit." ==Composition==

An R&B album, Journals steps away from Bieber's more teen-pop sound of his previous efforts, while also having pop influences. As claimed by Spin Brandon Soderberg, "[s]onically, it's up there with Beyoncé in terms of holding tight to the patience of '80s and '90s R&B while never forgetting the sugar-rush rewards of pop." Soderberg also reflected that Bieber was inspired by many R&B artists such as "Aaliyah, Drake, Frank Ocean, Sufjan Stevens, Sade, and Usher out of EDM mode." According to one of its producers, Jason Boyd, "Justin grew up listening to R&B. Journals was trying because it was going against the grain [of what he had been doing sonically], but it served so much of a purpose in him growing up." The album is composed by many "slow numbers", such as "Hold Tight," "All Bad" and "PYD", which Carl Williot of Idolator considered "racy, restrained jams in the vein of The Weeknd's mixtapes (minus the danger), each utilizing the bare minimum in terms of percussion." "One Life" was also noted for having influences by The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. craze of 2013 and marries it to trap stomps, as well as "freestyle-meets-Sonic the Hedgehog roller-skating grooves", completed Soderberg. "Bad Day" and "Swap It Out" flirt with late nostalgic '90s R&B/bling rap sweet spot, while "Confident" and closer "Memphis" channel Timbaland's prime with their brittle, syncopated percussion and background yelps." "Change Me', as noted by Soderberg, has a "The Tony Rich Project" feel to it, while "Backpack" is a futuristic pop song with a guitar solo. The music is slower and more restrained, with clean-toned electric guitar licks and gently stuttering R&B groove; "Recovery" features a "Craig David-sampling swoon" of "Fill Me In", "All that Matters" pushes Bieber's "earnest vocal into the limelight over an instrumental that relies on little more than swirling guitar strums and plush bass," and "Heartbreaker" features "chords [that] swim in and out of focus over a low-slung groove and vocals [that] float menacingly somewhere over your head" as Fact Aimee Cliff noticed. ==Music and lyrics==

Journals main themes deal with heartbreak and forgiveness in a romantic relationship, with many critics noting that it was influenced by Bieber's relationship with former girlfriend Selena Gomez. It finds the singer apologizing, taking responsibility for bad behavior and pledging lifelong faithfulness, while also talking about sex in some songs. ==Release and promotion==

On October 3, 2013, Bieber announced that he would release one new song every Monday for 10 weeks, leading up to the release of his Believe theatrical film, which saw a limited one-week release on Christmas Day 2013. Each of the singles released has its own original artwork, featuring a white and purple theme. The first song issued during "Music Mondays", as Bieber had touted the weekly releases, "Heartbreaker", was issued on October 7, 2013. The song reached the top of the Denmark charts, the top-ten in other three countries and peaked inside the top-twenty on the US Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart and other five territories. The second song, "All That Matters", was released on October 14, 2013, and was the first to receive a music video treatment, released on December 2, 2013. It was another number-one single in Denmark, while reaching the top-twenty in eight countries, including the United Kingdom. In the United States, it reached number 24. "Hold Tight" was the third, released on October 21, 2013, and also his third consecutive number-one in Denmark; elsewhere it reached the top-forty in over ten countries, followed by "Recovery" and "Bad Day", released on October 28, 2013, and November 4, 2013, respectively, with both reaching the top-forty in many countries, while the latter becoming the album's fourth number-one single in Denmark. The other five subsequent singles, "All Bad", "PYD", "Roller Coaster", "Change Me" and "Confident", were released each a week and attained moderate impact on the charts worldwide, with "Roller Coaster" and "Confident" also reaching the top of Denmark charts, and the latter also receiving a music video treatment. On December 9, 2013, Bieber announced that the ten Music Monday releases would be packaged with an additional five new songs in a compilation titled Complete My Journals. Although the album was initially set for release on December 16, 2013, the date was pushed back one week to December 23, as Bieber intended to include one more song on the compilation. Journals was available on iTunes from January 2, 2014, and all sixteen songs are available for purchase individually. According to one of its producers, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd, the label did not support the album because it wasn't the direction they wanted Justin to go. It was initially only released digitally, but was eventually released on LP in 2016. ==Commercial performance==

In April 2026, following Bieber's headlining Coachella performance, Journals debuted at number 111 on the US Billboard 200 with nearly 13,000 album-equivalent units. ==Critical reception==

Journals met with lukewarm reviews, with most music critics noting his artistic growth. In a positive review, Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times praised the "tunes that take up his evolving reputation with surprising candor" as well as the fact that "he's using that voice to confront the awkward aging-in-public process head-on." He also called the album "a come-to-Jesus moment that has nothing to do with Christmas." The Washington Posts Allison Stewart offered a negative outlook on the project, writing that "Justin Bieber ends a bad year with a bad album." In his review written for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Piet Levy wrote that Bieber is "less an eager child than a confident adult, although when Bieber's flat come-ons are juxtaposed with seasoned R&B star R. Kelly on "PYD," it's clear that as a performer, he still has a lot of growing up to do." ==Track listing==

}} ;Notes • signifies a co-producer. • signifies a vocal producer. • "Recovery" contains samples of "Fill Me In", written by Craig David and Mark Hill. • "Bad Day" contains samples of "Footsteps in the Dark", written by Ernest Isley, Marvin Isley, O'Kelly Isley Jr., Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley and Christopher Jasper. • "Memphis" contains samples of "Nights Off", written by Friedrich Moritz. ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications ==