Even this early on in the year, 2021 now has a top contender for album of the year — courtesy of Justin Bieber —the man who’s been on top of the music world since he was 12 years old. Last year’s album, “Changes,” was the album no one needed nor wanted. “Justice” is different.

The 16 track-long album, “Justice,” runs 45 minutes and 31 seconds long and the context in which Bieber has created these songs is vastly important. The pop star’s rise to stardom at a young age is household knowledge, as are his struggles. Being under the microscope of the entire world, Bieber seemed doomed to live an objectively broken life similar to that of famous child actors. After his cancellation of the Purpose World Tour in 2017, it appeared that Bieber had finally burnt out from the pressure the world put him under for almost a decade. Bieber notably found solace in Christianity recently and married model Hailey Baldwin in 2018.

Opening up about his struggles, particularly with things that very few humans have experienced, takes center stage with the song “Lonely,” which has an assist from songwriter and producer Benny Blanco. With the lyrics “And everybody saw me sick/ And it felt like no one gave a shit / They criticized the things I did as an idiot kid” stinging the heart, it’s clear Bieber has spent many years feeling alone and isolated at the apex of the music industry. He makes sure not to invalidate his listeners’ experience by saying his issues were not worse than what others go through. Instead, he maintains the focus of talking about just his own life, which garners the utmost respect for the battles that Bieber has fought to get through from a young age.

On “Lonely” and the preceding track, “Anyone,” Bieber’s vocal power shines in familiar sounds. Simple instrumentals allow Bieber to express his feelings with earnest emotion. In “Anyone,” Bieber sings about his wife, saying “You are the only one I’ll ever love / Yeah, you, if it’s not you, it’s not anyone.” Not only does his voice shine through on this track, but to hear a man with a very publicized love life appear to finally have found peace in his love for someone is refreshing, while not pestering or annoying.

Although a very strong album, Bieber misses the mark by sampling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the tracks “2 Much” and “MLK Interlude.” In “MLK Interlude” the idea Bieber seems to have taken to heart, comes in the statement, “if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you would die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.” The idea is watered down from powerful sentiment on fighting injustice to Bieber’s love of his wife. Sure, it’s cute that he feels like his wife and love are worth dying for, but the use of Dr. King could have certainly been omitted.

“Justice” boasts a strong amount of beautiful, passionate love songs in “Deserve You,” “Hold On,” “Off My Face,” “Somebody” and “Ghost.” Bieber’s vocal range shines through in these songs and brings life to the ideas of love without sounding repetitive or overbearing. Ideas of inspiration and insecurity sit center stage in “Deserve You” while “Ghost” illustrates that although love could be gone, Bieber is willing to “settle for the ghost” of the feelings that are not around anymore.

Each feature on “Justice” brings their A-game to hang with Bieber, and it certainly shows. The smooth verses and booming drops in the chorus of “As I Am” are paired perfectly with the dreamy voice of Khalid, who delivers one of his most complimentary performances to date. Chance the Rapper makes an appearance on the uplifting and spiritual love ballad “Holy,” one of the singles from the project. Chance puts on a show with his longtime collaborator and slides in a verse discussing love and God. In “Unstable,” rising star The Kid LAROI holds his own with Bieber, delivering a strong verse, but this is one of his only contributions that do not steal the entire show from the main artist.

The ’80s-influenced track, “Die For You,” is arguably the best from “Justice,” and contains the best pairing of Bieber and supremely underrated Dominic Fike. The two trade verses and Fike’s vocal ability does rival Bieber’s, which makes for a listener’s paradise. “Die For You” is one of the best examples of featuring the right artists, not just big names. Another leader for the best track is the extremely vibe-filled “Peaches” which gets assists from Daniel Caesar and Giveon. The trio each brings their own sound to the record to create the perfect summertime, windows-down-in-the-car monster of a hit. A strong feature from Jamaican dancehall artist BEAM adds a certain flavor to “Love You Different,” which almost sounds like a track left off of 2015’s “Purpose” album. Nigerian-born Burna Boy lends himself to “Loved by You” to round out the featured songs with an Afro-pop sound that is certain to impress.

Justin Bieber has nothing to prove to the world, and he knows it. His money is more than enough to walk away from music forever, and his success is otherwise unparalleled at such an age. The now 27-year-old brought an unseen maturity and control over his own art to “Justice.” After all the public ridicule, pressures and negativity surrounding his entire career, Bieber has produced his finest album yet. In an age of overnight fame and the emergence of independent artists topping charts, some believed Bieber’s time on the throne of the music industry had come to a close, that he didn’t have it anymore. Somewhere in Los Angeles, Bieber is finally happy in his own skin. Everywhere in the world, “Justice” blows away listeners with a mature, diverse sound and A+ features, while every song is a reminder of why Bieber’s one of the greatest pop stars to ever live.