ADRIAN THRILLS: You won’t believe it’s Bieber! 

Justin Bieber: Justice (EMI)

Rating:

Verdict: Ballads and bangers 

First Aid Kit: Who By Fire (Columbia)

Rating:

Verdict: Heartfelt Leonard Cohen tribute  

Ben Howard: Collections From The Whiteout (Island)

Rating:

Verdict: Enigmatic story-songs

The last time we heard from Justin Bieber, he was celebrating his honeymoon in song. 

His February 2020 album Changes was a glorified love letter to his American wife, Hailey Baldwin, launched by the singer in person, with a pre-lockdown playback for journalists in a packed London club.

The world has changed since then, and the Canadian is keen to show that he’s changed with it. 

His sixth album, Justice, is prefaced with a statement about how the former teen idol wants to make music that will bring comfort to our ‘broken’ planet. 

‘I want to continue the conversation of what justice looks like so we can continue to heal,’ he says.

It’s clear Bieber now wants to be seen as something more than just a pop star, and to that end, the album incorporates two short extracts from speeches by the late American civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

So, has Justin — whose last album contained a song praising his wife’s ‘yummy yum’ — suddenly become political? Not on the evidence here.

For all the noise surrounding it (Bieber is also facing legal action from French dance duo Justice over his use of a logo similar to theirs) Justice takes up from where Changes left off, and the first half is packed with loved-up ballads. 

The inspirational words of King feel bolted on, despite the blessing of his daughter Bernice.

Machine-tooled with a legion of co-writers, these business- as-usual numbers are slushy and generic. ‘Two seconds without you is like two months,’ he sings on 2 Much.

He admits he isn’t worthy of Hailey’s devotion on Deserve You, before serenading her in a smooth falsetto on Off My Face. The honeymoon clearly isn’t over yet.

The highlight of this section is Holy, made with Christian R&B star Chance The Rapper, whose words dovetail brilliantly with Bieber’s against a backdrop of gospel piano and tambourine.

Chance even manages to slip in a sly reference to Argentinian football hero Lionel Messi.

The second half — incongruously prefaced with a powerful speech by Dr King about not being cowed by fear — is more upbeat, as Justin returns to the dancefloor for the first time since 2015’s career-defining Purpose, the electronic album that turned him from a pop pin-up into a respected adult performer.

Die For You, a duet with Florida singer Dominic Fike, is a club-friendly banger that doffs a cap to Rick James and Michael Jackson, while Hold On and Somebody are punctuated by 1980s synths and agile vocals.

Ghost blends electronic beats with acoustic guitars in the style of the late Swedish DJ Avicii, and Loved By You contains a verse by Nigerian singer Burna Boy.

Bieber, who made his first album at 16, also reflects on the price of early fame on Lonely, a superior ballad made with producer Benny Blanco and Billie Eil-ish’s brother Finneas. A look back at the mistakes he made as an ‘idiot kid’, it suggests he’s finally growing up.

So, is Justice going to change the world? Unlikely — but the album’s more upbeat moments might just brighten up a grey day.

The Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg — First Aid Kit — use their fifth album to show their appreciation for Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. 

Recorded live over two nights at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Who By Fire sees the duo cover Cohen’s songs and poems with the help of guests and a choir.

With no edits, and any musical missteps left untouched, it’s an intimate but patchy experience. Cohen’s most famous songs are covered, but there’s also room for overlooked spoken-word pieces and less celebrated singles such as You Want It Darker, released two months before his death in November 2016.

Among the high points are a simple rendition of his 1967 debut single Suzanne, about his platonic relationship with dancer Suzanne Verdal, and a stunning take on Bird On The Wire featuring a capella harmonies.

The inescapable Hallelujah is given a slow-burning makeover with the help of indie-pop singer Annika Norlin.

The sisters’ male guests add variety, with Jesper Lindell appearing on Chelsea Hotel No 2 (about Cohen’s affair with Janis Joplin), and Loney Dear (Emil Svanängen) singing Avalanche alone.

It’s a lengthy business — a double LP on vinyl — but Cohen would surely have been delighted by the mixture of First Aid Kit’s Scandi cool and his warm but wry Americana.

Ben Howard beat a host of more fancied rivals when he was crowned best breakthrough act and best male artist at the Brits eight years ago. The Devon-raised singer has since branched out from his acoustic beginnings to embrace electronic music.

Once a peer of Ed Sheeran, he now has more in common with U.S. mavericks such as Bon Iver.

He hooks up with another American cult figure, The National’s Aaron Dessner, on fourth album Collections From The Whiteout. Dessner co-produced Taylor Swift’s Folklore, and he adds some familiar touches here, blanketing Howard’s simple strumming with tape loops and ‘a spaceship of pedal boards’.

Those seeking big choruses should look elsewhere. Howard’s songs, inspired by tragic news stories, can be oblique. Crowhurst’s Meme honours an amateur sailor lost at sea.

The Strange Last Flight Of Richard Russell tells of a man who stole and crashed a small airliner in Seattle. But What A Day, a meditation on the passing of time, harks back to his folk roots.