new charlie puth

i posted about this in the pop thread, but the album (which comes out on friday) is kinda amazing i think

the best songs -- or at least the ones i wanna talk about most -- haven't been released yet... really pristinely produced dancey soft rock in the vein of like early phoenix or jamie lidell but with mainstream pop's million dollar sheen

for now i'll post "how long"... which unsurprisingly flopped after "attention" since they're pretty similar, but i like "how long" better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwfoyVa980U

ha -- I heard this on campus today.

this album rules

I'm tentatively interested in this; the video for "How Long" has been inescapable on our music channels since late last year, and I've ended up liking it a lot.

listening to it more it's not as blue eyed indie soul/disco as i thought. he gives it away at one point that he's really trying to do a steely dan thing, but there's something so squeaky clean about the production that it veers hard into like... huey lewis territory or something? it's really an album patrick bateman would love.

sold

it's really an album patrick bateman would love.

― J0rdan S., Friday, May 11, 2018 1:50 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this has been 75% of pop radio ever since "Get Lucky" probably and it is the bane of my existence

i like attention and the kehlani song, sounds like robin thicke circa something else

oh i posted about this a bunch in the pop thread today! it’s very good

"BOY" is excellent.

i haven't listened to any of this yet, but i am here for it. puth has always seemed like a punchline, but "attention" and "we don't talk anymore" are two of my favorite pop songs of the past couple of years.

oh i posted about this a bunch in the pop thread today! it’s very good

this album is like borderline blasphemous in places which is a characteristic present in a lot of pop albums i love. a certain audacity that the artist gets away with bcuz the songwriting really justifies it. (see 1975 & fall out boy)

Alright, skimming through this now on streaming bc of the thread’s recommendation, and 2 immediate thoughts:
1. Steely Dan comparisons? Really?
2. How has “Done For Me” not been the followup single that’s all over pop radio? (Presumably forthcoming, followed by a version sans Kehlani for Lite FM etc.)

Anyway Puth’s funk makeover shouldn’t have worked at all so I guess I shouldn’t complain about it working well in parts with some gaps in the facade.

Also wasn’t he up to something shady recently on social media? I wish I could remember specifics but this jogged the memory.

idk if 'being a semi-closeted (former(?)) trump supporter' is considered shady social media behavior these days but if so then yeah. i think he also 'liked' some misogynistic tweets about kesha or something, idk.

"done for me" is his current radio single btw! it's just that his home format (top 40) now prefers to spin the shit out of its established hits for like 8 months straight before letting something new join in the fray unless a huge star releases a single. so it's #24 on billboard's pop songs chart rn, meaning the vast majority of pop radio's casual listeners aren't hearing it at all.

1. Steely Dan comparisons? Really?

one of the songs drags in the opening chords from “what a fool believes”

Not that this matters either, but Puth writes, produces, and plays almost every note.

In that case, fuck this guy and his useless music.

otm

I hate how much I like this album.

I understand he wrote one of the most repulsive major hits of the last eight years, but this album sounds nothing like it.

just one?

Yeah. The competition's worse.

also said this to billboard fwiw

But the album’s blandly sentimental songs prompted as many eye-rolls as sales. "It has the lowest Metacritic rating... ever?" says Puth with a laugh (actually, not quite: the 15th lowest for an album). "But I agree with that score. That album was not me at all."

"Everything I didn't want to happen to me -- typical things you hear about a young kid getting signed in the music industry -- happened to me," says Puth. "I was being told to do this, this and this. I didn't want to do any of it, and I was just going along with the punches." He spent two years flogging a hit he never intended to sing -- he wrote the "See You Again" chorus for Sam Smith -- and an album he didn't believe in.

can someone tell me which one or two tracks to listen to from his album that supposedly don't sound anything like his previous output? because "attention" and "how long" do not fit the bill -- like, smug dweeb personality, check; freshly-kicked puppydog whimpers counterbalanced with obnoxiously processed belting, check. i was gonna write more but those are basically the only distinctive qualities of his music.

that billboard excerpt is funny because he literally told the same publication earlier that he was not slated to sing on "see you again" at all but put his foot down and insisted upon it.

I wasn't supposed to be on the song; I was only supposed to be a writer on the song. I was a brand new artist, I wasn't cool enough to be part of the franchise yet, I wasn't big enough, but I proved everybody who was close-minded wrong. Everyone on my record label stuck beside me and my management.

I'll never forget I ended up calling them from around this big conference table on the phone, and they were explaining the reasons why it was going to be sung by this artist and blah, blah blah, I'm not going to name any names, but... I said, 'That's great. Your movie comes out in a week and I'm not gonna give you the song.' And I hung up the phone and when I said that miraculously I was in the music video.

can someone tell me which one or two tracks to listen to from his album that supposedly don't sound anything like his previous output? because "attention" and "how long" do not fit the bill -- like, smug dweeb personality, check; freshly-kicked puppydog whimpers counterbalanced with obnoxiously processed belting, check. i was gonna write more but those are basically the only distinctive qualities of his music.

― dyl, Monday, May 14, 2018 12:15 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark

boy, somebody told me, empty cups

lots of songs on this recall lots of older songs to me kind of more immediately than i'm entirely comfortable with but I feel like if i was 16-28 I'd have no clue,

mostly like this even if hes kind of anonymous

at times chromeo-ish with better songwriting

he was a guest advisor on the Voice maybe a year after "See You Again", and he came across pretty unconfident, acting more like a contestant than an advisor - it was kind of cute, honestly. one of the contestants even went to music school with him! going off of that and the "How Long" video, I get the impression he is still not very comfortable in the performer role

I was listening to this and thought it was pretty blah besides "Attention", at which point I noticed that one has well over half a billion streams on Spotify, fuck

okay i listened to the three tracks jordan mentioned and i do have to say they were different from/better than what i expected. they've also made it clear that for me it's his voice that's the sticking point. he records it decently enough i guess and sure, he can make the last syllable of a phrase quiver every now and then to convey something very vaguely resembling pain or uncertainty, but that's just about the extent of the emotional range i get from him. the production is pretty accomplished. i could see myself enjoying the tracks if sung by someone else.

i never thought that this would happen but i'm really enjoying this record. the song with kehlani is simply amazing.

welcome

Caramanica in NY Times loves the album. Eh, it's ok. Puth does studied at Berklee musician geek quotes in this story too.

“Voicenotes” is a confident, impressive pop album, with ironclad melodies and frisky takes on 1980s funk and 1990s soul. It turns out that Mr. Puth is not the maudlin crooner who entered the spotlight, but rather a sophisticated pop marksman with a gift for spare, pointed arrangements — he produced almost the whole album himself — and detailed, vulnerable lyrics. He gets wronged by an older woman on “Boy,” and “LA Girls” is about how a whole city, and everyone in it, can break your heart. On “If You Leave Me Now,” he duets with Boyz II Men, and on “Change,” with James Taylor. His falsetto, on “How Long,” “Somebody Told Me” and more, is appealingly supple. All in all, it makes for one of the boldest pop albums of the year.

When he talks about the work Babyface did on TLC’s “CrazySexyCool,” he notes how the intro is in B minor and then the next song, “Creep,” shifts to C minor. During the interview, when he heard a bird chirping in his backyard, he squawked back, “B flat!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/arts/music/charlie-puth-voicenotes-interview.html

Steely Dan didn't write What A Fool Believes you awful scoundrels.

that Marvin Gaye single with Meghan Trainor was a true crime. can this thing really be that different? (yes i could go listen to it but i'm in polite company)

Steely Dan didn't write What A Fool Believes you awful scoundrels.

i mean duh, this isn't what i meant

Somehow I didn't realize until now that One Call Away--my daughter's Kindergarten graduation song--was him. That makes me hate him a little less, it's not a bad song and she loves it. He gives off an offputting spoiled rich kid vibe though. Marvin Gaye was an atrocity against music and I don't know that I'll ever be able to disentangle his name from that song in my mind.

"one call away" was also terrible imo

tbf I'm not sure I've ever actually heard his version, I think they use the Kidz Bop cover

honestly if respected ILMers are going to vouch for this guy then our culture has reached a truly degenerate and debauched state and nothing means anything anymore

During the interview, when he heard a bird chirping in his backyard, he squawked back, “B flat!”
rly

not surprised, he has perfect pitch correction

"Marvin Gaye was an atrocity against music"

huh

The Way I Am, Slow It Down and Somebody Told Me are all great, why weren't any of those singles? most of the rest feels pleasantly anonymous (had remembered hating Attention but it sounds decent enough now?) but when I actually pay attention to the lyrics he comes across as so obnoxious yeah

"Marvin Gaye was an atrocity against music"

huh

― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Tuesday, May 29, 2018 3:44 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://bfy.tw/IMU1

so you hate marvin gayes music?

The album is largely more subtle than that.

Although I am not wowed by that song called “Marvin Gaye “” I don’t hate it as much as Man Alive.

i like hearing him do something w/ more of a groove but this production is cool... it's almost like "cry me a river"ish which...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJFHLMiD1Js

I like watching him in an undershirt.

ILM is “hungies hive”

new song seems to split the difference between old annoying Charlie and new and improved but somehow still works?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTMzLbz9_r0

ps Charlie plz call me

although a 27 y/o singing this song makes me a bit skeevy

i liked way more 'i warned myself' but he seems to be getting cuter with each video.

new single has a trap-ish production. it's a little bit corny, but it's nice. and he's very cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOoSbUoayQE

i think about him flapping the ears on his pokemon hat more than i'd like

is he nude in the video

i like this one

"mother" is a bit OTT for me, but this and "i warned myself" are cool. there's a kind of put-on darkness to these tracks/this album cycle that's a little ridiculous... this one is a little lighter tho

finally a new one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXRI0vr_zPQ

ah see this is really dope

he was trying too hard w/ the previous singles, he's much better making this kind of meticulously arranged patrick bateman pop

There are moments when he looks like Ellen DeGeneres.

yah this is the right sound. cheating on you was ok but didnt like the other two hes released

i assumed this revive was about his love for hoagies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD61F6SNkTo

he was trying too hard w/ the previous singles, he's much better making this kind of meticulously arranged patrick bateman pop

― J0rdan S.

I still think 'I warned myself' is one of his best songs.

yeah that one was actually cool enough but i never wanted to replay it

just listened to voicenotes again... what a killer album

he's so sweet. i just can't. sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asYfhMHAgqs

Voicenotes follow-up when

i'm at work rn and cannot listen to the new song, someone plz listen and tell me it rules thx

is he nude on the cover

snap judgement but i dont really like it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFsAon_TWPQ

i like it! cute and fun. i don't even really care about him as a singles artist at this point so whatever needs to happen to get his next album out that's really all i care about. so rooting for this one to take off, i guess

yeah thats about right. its fun enough but im ready for an album

heard it on the way home tn, i thought it was all right + now hearing it again at home w/ the video i think it will grow on me

he’s been making the song on tik tok for months, if anyone is interested in the nerdy block by block machination

Benjamin Moore

i think his new song (and video) is incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq3x1AkwgpY

+1

Still thinking about the hair.

looking forward to this album. been listening to the pre release tracks a lot recently. “smells like me” (biting my lip…) and “i don’t think i like her” are my favs of the ones that are out. “that’s hilarious” is a good opener too

some amazing songs on this...

"there's a first time for everything" in particular is crazy... a perfect 3 minute pop song condensed into two minutes, it's like crushing a pop music pill and snorting it. i love the echoes of "the rock show" in the verses

"tears on my piano" also goes hard

and i'm inducting "smells like me" into the illustrious society of classic rip offs of the 1975

Hi, sarge

can't think of a melody
that makes you come back to me
got
all
these
tears
on
my
piano

don't hear much 1975 in "Smells Like Me" but still, great song on a decent album

Puth's writing is significantly underrated here. ilm would lose its collective mind over some of these songs if they appeared on the new crj record.

agreed

"I Don't Think That I Like Her" would be a smash Sam Hunt single

“Smells Like Me”, what a song!!!

Listened to this again recently and it's half excellent, half solid. Might like it more than the last one. His melodies are indelible.

"Smells Like Me" is very Hall and Oates, no? -- tons of fun but doesn't excite me like "That's Hilarious" > "Charlie Be Quiet!" The latter does the soft/loud thing a la Rina Sawayama, and how perfect to have the electric guitar riff blow up on the words "be quiet!" 2 minutes of pop perfection.

new song he's been posting about on tik tok called "that's not how this works" sounds excellent

https://www.tiktok.com/@charlieputh/video/7187571956370132270?lang=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@charlieputh/video/7192759567850147118?lang=en

need that asap

new single “Lipstick” is fantastic

Highly recommend the recent Switched on Pop episode with Puth. He is so casual yet brimming with ideas and knowledge and references.