To Be Loved

Riding on a wave of success that helped his Christmas album sell well over two million copies in 2011, Michael Bublé’s first non-festive LP since 2009’s Crazy Love is a schizophrenic thing. This latest offering sees the dapper 37 year-old from British Columbia juggle the usual array of mid-century jazz inflections with the occasional bout of bright, cheery pop, resulting in a passable but altogether disjointed showcase of his undoubted talents.

Taken in isolation, it’s hard to hate the old-school charm of Bublé’s streamlined baritone, here introduced by the familiarly classy big band opening of Frank Sinatra’s ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’. With an effortlessness that makes singing sound easy, the biggest asset of his work is the way he punctuates his usual measured delivery with moments of rawness to make recognisable songs sound fresh. This is never more true than in the realms of Motown and soul, with a cover of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ confirming that it’s in the lower reaches of tempo and pitch, buoyed by the ebb and flow of brass and strings, where the Canadian’s voice sounds most at home.

Away from the usual array of past classics, though, it may well be Bublé’s own work that gives the strongest impression of the sentiment behind To Be Loved as an album. The poignancy that speckles his delivery of otherwise schmaltzy lines like “I’m warm in bed, got a beautiful woman beneath me”on the self-penned ‘I Got It Easy’ expresses a sincere ode to loving and being loved echoes throughout this album. Where others might sound cheesy, Bublé manages to sound genuinely grateful.

Bublé seems unsure whether his music ought to be enjoyed with a cigar by the fireplace or as background music at your local Co-op.”

But here’s the catch: this theme isn’t enough to tie an otherwise muddled collection of tracks together. Most unforgivable of all is the way it grates when Bublé drags us from the nostalgic fantasy built by the album’s opening tracks back into the worst excesses of 21^st century pop. Of the four original tracks on offer, two are trite efforts that fit on this album about as well as One Direction crashing a dinner party at the Ritz. Both lead single ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ and his duet with Bryan Adams on ‘After All’ are burdened by electric guitars and climactic key changes as Bublé’s vocals rise higher and higher until any semblance of his trademark tone is lost amongst the instrumental chaos.

You get the impression that Michael Bublé is teetering on the verge of two musical identities here, undecided whether his music ought to be enjoyed with a cigar by the fireplace or as background music at your local Co-op. The man who has built a career on exceptional vocal ability is undoubtedly at his best when he doesn’t hide it behind the cluttered production of cheery pop; one can only hope that his next effort yields a consistent return to his charming best.

Similar to: Matt Dusk, Harry Connick Jr.

MP3: ‘I Got It Easy’, ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’