Somewhere beyond the confusing weather of early spring is the promise of iridescent blue summer skies fluffed with clouds, perfect for cloud-gazing and, in Charlie Puth’s case, reflecting on his fame, love life and toxic masculinity. Puth uses this image as the background of the cover for his new album — “Whatever’s Clever!” — released on March 27, an apt depiction of the whimsical ways Puth chooses to showcase more mature reflection.
As the title suggests, the album’s biggest strength is its experimentation, in this case through background instrumentals coming up to center stage. Lightly melancholic and conveying a bittersweet emotional nuance, the jazzy saxophone instrumental break in “Cry” matches the song’s message of accepting emotions as they come, standing out in technical quality through intricate riffs while still meshing neatly with the rest of the song. This sax solo came from an idea as whimsical as the concept of the album itself. As recapped on TikTok, Puth wrote a segment based on saxophonist Kenny G’s work, then reached out to him via mutual friends, finally ending up with Kenny G spending just an hour to craft a unique segment for the song.
Other background instrumentals — like strumming guitar in “Reply To This” and hollow-sounding drums in “Washed Up” — diverge from the kick drum-snare drum combination so pervasive in mainstream pop, complementing Puth’s clean falsetto for a pleasantly light and summery sound.
Puth also extends this experimentation to vocals. While many of his most famous songs rely on a strong solo line, this album dives right into the deep end of backing vocals. The main choruses of “Changes” and “Cry” glow with echoes from gospel choirs, like the chorus line “There’s been some changes (changes) in our life, oh / I can feel the distance (distance) / Space and time (time).” This creates a sound mix more akin to a live performance than pressed 2010s pop, boosting the songs’ energy and adds to their underlying optimism.
In its collaboration with Jeff Goldblum and the Midred Snitzer Orchestra, “Until It Happens To You” includes a spoken introduction and interlude to capture the nervous chuckles and awkward silences of a parent discussing death with their children, providing an astute flip in perspective from the rest of the song — told from the perspective of a child whose parent has lost someone close to them. “Home,” a collaboration with Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada, showcases Puth and Utada’s vocal synergy through almost indistinguishable harmonies: a cute coincidence, considering the song is about missing a partner who completes you.
Curiously, these innovations showcase Puth’s musical prowess through production, not creation — he leans heavily on collaborations and splicing from other songs while his own vocal lines remain as monotonous as ever. Barring minor fluctuations, Puth’s signature breathy tenor exclusively dominates the album, recontextualized only by the various instrumental solos and backing vocals he adds to it. The most striking emotional nuance is the aforementioned saxophone on “Cry,” which, while a beautiful choice for the song, relies heavily on Kenny G’s compositional and technical skill. Though Puth works around this restriction semi-effectively using positive or nonchalant spins on situations — such as the accepting rather than devastated reflection on a growing apart in “Changes” — greater vocal variation would have significantly elevated the emotional depth of the album.
But the biggest shortfall of the album is its lyrics. “Changes” reveals a hint of maturity — lines like “New directions and lessons are happenin’ / Maybe that’s, mm, just the way it is / No matter how much you’re missin’ it / No love lost, I know it’s innocent” epitomize Puth’s shift from a teenager having fun to a more reflective adult. “Hey Brother” and “Cry” bring a similar maturity, comforting a younger version of Puth and attempting to dismantle some aspects of toxic masculinity by encouraging listeners to accept their emotions and seek help — no doubt a necessary message, since Puth himself said publicly that he wrote the songs for friends who “needed to hear them.”
Despite this ostensibly noble goal, Puth still ends up spewing a deluge of cliches. A prime example is the pre-chorus and chorus of “Hey Brother”: “You can always keep it in the family / ‘Cause blood is thicker than water / Hey, brother […] I’ll be right behind you еvery step of the way.” “Cry” also follows this pattern of extreme predictability: “[…] everybody cries / Cry, cry, cry / It doesn’t matter / you don’t ever have to keep it all inside.” Though the songs are still interesting musically and set a pleasant mood as background music, the lack of storytelling or creative lyricism makes it clear that Puth’s self-reflection is still surface-level. Even “I Used To Be Cringe,” which had exactly one job — don’t be cringe — fails, instead echoing each word or two in a way that makes Puth sound more like a lamenting little boy, bordering on facetious.
These drawbacks do fall within the scope of a standard pop album — at least in production, “Whatever’s Clever!” lives up to its promise of whimsicality, and the lyrics, while eyeroll-level cringe at times, do show a genuineness that makes them passably listenable. Ultimately, Puth shines in this new album as a vocalist of consistency, using his strength as a compiler of music to fill in the gaps and arrive at a product that strikes, at least a little, as clever.
RATING: 3/5
