Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
Charlie Puth, Atlantic Records 2018.
Charlie Puth is a multi-Grammy nominated singer/songwriter/producer and Voicenotes is his second album release.
Charlie exploded onto the scene as a songwriter, producer and vocalist on Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again, the emotional tribute to Paul Walker in Furious 7.
The tune officially entered the record books as one of the decade’s biggest selling singles, topping Billboard’s top 100 for a stunning 12 weeks.
Voicenotes is the follow-up to his RIAA Platinum-certified album, Nine Track Mind, which reached number 5 on the Billboard charts on its release in 2016.
Every track on Voicenotes was written and produced by Puth and it has already achieved considerable critical acclaim.
Associated Press labelled it as “an astonishing glistening collection of summer-perfect pop.”
Billboard raved “Puth has put his best foot forward with an entire album’s worth of songs both catchy and sincere, turning the potential for a sophomore slump into a sophomore triumph.”
Puth has an excellent voice and there is no doubting his production credentials. The sound is clean and crisp.
The production places the emphasis on the vocal with carefully crafted accompanying musical backing that is full of space and inventiveness.
The lead single, Attention, has already gone 3XPlatinum and the follow-up, How Long, has also achieved Platinum sales.
These singles were released last year, and they led to substantial anticipation and early album sales.
The music publicity machine is known for its hyperbole and as much as I like the album I don’t think it’s that much better than a number of similar pop albums that have been released in recent months.
