Miguel-Wildheart

Miguel

Wildheart

Bystorm/RCA records

Entering his third album, Miguel’s was facing more pressure than ever. Coming off his excellent sophomore album Kaleidoscope Dream which included the Billboard top 20 hit Grammy winner “Adorn”, Miguel was naturally going to garner more attention with his third effort. The handsome R&B singer appears to have been refreshingly uncompromising with his sound on the third record. Miguel always has stated that he refuses to be a conformist. The spacey Prince-esq. production and blatant sex appeal Miguel is known for remains intact along with a selection of tracks that were not crafted to be radio hits. Unfortunately this collection of tracks entitled Wildheart lacked the strength Miguel had shown with his previous record.

The album which was almost entirely produced by Miguel himself is very hit and miss. On some tracks he wears his Prince and Hendrix influences on his sleeve, implementing seductive crunchy guitar licks. Tracks like these such as the opener, “A Beautiful Exit” are excellent and pair very nicely with the reverb effect Miguel puts on his voice. “Hollywood Dreams” also features an excellent guitar piece while Miguel describes a narrative of a woman who dreams to make it in show business but is distracted by that world’s drug culture. The track serves as a rare break from Miguel’s typical sex ballad themes and proves Miguel can produce a solid R&B track. The final track, “Face the Sun” featuring Lenny Kravitz is everything Miguel can do well on a track all at once. The synths create a nice texture for Miguel to wail his huge vocal range over then step aside while Kravitz wails a downright sexy guitar solo as vocalists harmonize in the background. The collaboration seemed to fit perfectly unlike the Kurupt rap verse that just felt out of place. The lyrics show the introspective side of Miguel. While he discusses philandering for most of the album in an anxious and even angsty way at times, this touching closer finds Miguel sounding content about knowing he belongs with one woman.  These guitar driven tracks that bookend the album left a lot to be desired in between.

The biggest disappointment of Wildheart was that Miguel rarely showed off the immense vocal power he possesses. He lets loose on “Face the Sun” as well as “Flesh” which is another strong track on the album, but for the rest of the album Miguel implements a singling style you would typically hear from Drake. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but by the third record we have come to expect more from someone with a powerful voice like Miguel. The piercing wails that are found all over Kaleidoscope Dream and All I Want is You are much less frequent on the new release. The album also made me question Miguel as a producer. While he did land production credits on a lot of Kaleidoscope Dream most of those tracks were massive collaborations. Wildheart was almost entirely produced by Miguel himself and the production sounds too similar. The atmospheric synth driven vibes began to run into each other a bit creating a feeling of familiarity.

Repetition also plagued Miguel lyrically on this album. Many of the verses are only four lines with a chorus that featured one or two repeated lines. “DEAL”, “The Valley”, “Waves”, and “…goingtohell” suffer from this syndrome the most. The fact that many of these songs are so lyrically without substance make the songs feel like a quick passing thought rather than a well fleshed out idea. On the flip side a few of these tracks feature some of Miguel’s best lyrics. “Flesh” is one of Miguel’s most starkly romantic and sex driven tracks where he worships the female figure. “What’s Normal Anyway?” has Miguel tackling discrimination and the rejection that can come with growing up a mixed individual. Miguel treats this subject with a sincerity and experience that make these tracks memorable despite the production being hardly so. This track stood out especially because it was surrounded by tracks that became more and more sexually banal as the album went on. Steamy R&B is Miguel’s style but the approach often felt either cliché or downright forced like on “The Valley” where Miguel discusses making love to a woman in the pornography film capital.

This album was supposed to be Miguel’s coming out party, but Miguel simply missed the mark with too many of these tracks. The stand out songs fail to hold up the weaker tracks on this album mostly because they are vastly outnumbered. Strong production and strong lyrics rarely match up on the album the way Kaleidoscope Dream did track after track. Look for Miguel to improve his production skills for the next album and hopefully create a project with a bit more exciting material, but Wildheart is probably one to pass provided you are not a massive Miguel or R&B fan.

4/10

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Tom Kliebhan

6/30/2015

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