I don't know what to think of Charlie Puth to be honest. I remember seeing him on Meghan Trainor's Instagram one day because they were doing some song together. I check him out on YouTube doing some covers and I really liked the sound of his voice. The one problem I had was how auto tuned it sounded. I'm not saying his literal voice is auto tuned, but something funny was going on in the mixing department in those videos. As soon as I heard him performing live I started to get why he did that. No disrespect but he just has a very husky and shaky natural singing voice. I can handle it in small doses (example, skip to 3:31) but other times ( his solos during Marvin Gaye & See You Again at the AMA's and Billboard Awards) I just can't do it. You can tell through his expression and in his voice that he's singing with a lot of emotions, I'll give him that, but most of the time he just sounds like he's struggling to hit those notes live. Clearly I have nothing against him, I really want to love his music but I can't tell if there's something missing in his voice or if there's something missing in his original music that just isn't connecting with me but that's the main reason why I don't consider myself a huge Charlie Puth fan. I hope he can change my mind though because he has a really cool personality and a really cool right eyebrow.
This is just going to be a very quick wrap up of the tracks (the released ones) from his upcoming debut album. I'm not gonna try and get into the nitty and the gritty about what they mean and how emotional they are because there's a common theme of love and relationships and the songs are very cookie cutter but in a new and refreshing way. On with the review:
ONE CALL AWAY
I know I said I wasn't really going to dig deep into the deeper meaning of the songs, but this is probably the only one where I'm actually going to be analyzing a little. I was looking through the comments (because that's what you do when you have no life) on the music video for this and there was one that really struck me. The music video is about him having a crush on some random girl, cute, but the comment was along the lines of "My best friend moved away and if you see this I'm only one call away!" Not only was it a really cute comment but this song can have so many meanings. I liked the instrumental track and his voice didn't sound too shabby either, I just thought of it as a little bit forgettable and more of a track you skip over only to discover after your interest in the better songs have burnt up. I don't get why it's a single but it's still a decent track (7/10).
MARVIN GAYE (feat. Meghan Trainor)
The instrumental to this song is awesome. It's very doo-wop '50s inspired, a sound I love. I think this was the perfect song to feature Meghan Trainor on and their voices and styles just synced up together so well. Their musical chemistry is the reason why this song worked so well. Yes it's a good song and it fit the style of Charlie's voice a lot better than his other songs, but I think the song would have fallen a little flat without Trainor's voice to meet his. Another thing, that's really funny, is how I had no idea this song was about sex until I watched an interview with Puth. I literally just thought he wanted to chill and listen to Marvin Gaye music with his boo because Marvin Gaye music is awesome. I'm sure they'll do that after they're done with the king-size they have all to their selves (8/10).
SUFFER
So Charlie Keys? Alicia Puth? This song immediately gives off early 2000s R&B vibes with the piano at the beginning and I absolutely loved it. Is Charlie literally just going for baby making music? I think after this song it's safe to call him the Prince (on lay away) of the modern instrumental track. Even when I'm not feeling his vocals (which is a lot of the time), the instrumental always sounds absolutely amazing. Speaking of vocals, ladies and gentleman, this is what you call: FALSE - etto. I cringed every time he went for those really really high notes he reached for. Am I the only one who hears struggle struggle struggle when he goes for those notes? The rest of the song was pretty good, I guess (7/10).
SOME TYPE OF LOVE
I think this might have worked better as a single. Not that I'm coming for hustle because Once Call Away is in the Top 40 on Billboard so get it how you get it. I just personally preferred this song a whole lot more. I thought it had a very catchy chorus and his vocals were a lot tighter and more stable and weren't having a struggle of choosing which direction to go in (7.5/10).
PRE-ALBUM GRADE: B
I'm excited to see what his debut LP has to offer!
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