There have been some changes in Charlie Puth's life recently. He got married. He's a dad. And in the musical shoutout heard 'round the world, Taylor Swift declared that he “should be a bigger artist.”
On “Changes,” the lead single from his fourth album, “Whatever's Clever!,” he ponders those shifts: “There’s been some changes in our life, oh / I can feel the distance,” he sings. “Space and time, has made everything different.” An eight-member choir
backs him up in the song's latter half, joining Puth's keys and a steady drum. These layers, while plenty, aren't heavy. Puth keeps the track buoyant.
That light, playful energy is felt across much of the album releasing Friday (“Beat Yourself Up,” “Washed Up”). Puth and his co-producer BloodPop pull from a Mary Poppins bag of musical tricks — a choir! an orchestra! Kenny G! — to create complex tracks with influences that range from yacht rock to jazz and R&B, diverting from Puth's previous pop. Consider the wonky “Until It Happens To You,” which combines the orchestra and choir for a song about embracing the best of times while anticipating the worst, with a bubbly spoken introduction and interlude by Jeff Goldblum.
Musically, the outcome is fun, largely because Puth, with his perfect pitch and Berklee College of Music training, has only leaned further into his “Professor Puth” persona, giving listeners the tools to break down those layers themselves through explanatory TikToks and talk show appearances. But Puth and BloodPop play it safe lyrically throughout the album, often relying on generic platitudes. (“You know everybody cries,” Puth sings on “Cry.” “Cry, cry, cry.”)
And yet, painting in broad strokes has worked before for Puth, and there are moments — when he pushes a simple idea a bit further — where it does here, too: “Love in Exile,” featuring and written with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, is catchy and quotable. “Sideways,” featuring verses and harmonies by Coco Jones, recalls Puth's early collaborative hits like Wiz Khalifa's “See You Again” and “We Don't Talk Anymore” with Selena Gomez, with their affecting but not overly complicated lyrics.
The album ends with “I Used To Be Cringe,” another meditation on transformation. Puth lists the compromises he made to fit into the industry (“I used to lie and say I was taller / And throw words around like ‘baller’”). But the acoustic guitar-set ballad feels incomplete, its introspection never quite too deep.
If the album is seen as a sort of scrapbook assembled ahead of his next chapter, then flipping back to the first page reveals Puth knows growth comes with those dreams being rewritten: “Sometimes the wind blows in different new directions,” he sings on “Changes.” Where that takes him, we'll have to see. For now, Puth is embracing his influences and flexing what he's learned. And that makes for a good time.
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“Whatever's Clever!” by Charlie Puth
Three stars out of five.
On repeat: “Sideways (Feat. Coco Jones),” “Changes”
Skip it: “Don't Meet Your Heroes,” “I Used to Be Cringe”
For fans of: Yacht rock, layered melodies, unexpected choirs
