First gaining popularity through YouTube, Charlie Puth is a 24-year-old singer and songwriter known for his collaborations with Wiz Khalifa and Meghan Trainor. His debut album, “Nine Track Mind,” was recently released on Jan. 29 and has pushed him up to the top of the iTunes charts, setting a new standard for contemporary R&B/pop music. Sadly, the quality of the album fails to live up to its popularity.
Puth’s unusual start to fame launched in 2009 under his YouTube channel, where he released weekly acoustic covers. In 2015, Puth’s great exposure as a composer, pianist, and singer led him to working with rapper Wiz Khalifa in the soundtrack for “Fast and Furious 7,” a tribute to deceased actor Paul Walker.
The song, “See You Again,” peaked at the No. 1 spot in 26 countries, defining Puth as a worldwide sensation. With this easily lovable tribute in mind, we had no doubt that Puth could reach high expectations with his new album.
Finally, on Jan. 29, Puth released his complete album “Nine Track Mind,” with a total of 12 songs.
We were disappointed to find that his effort to aim for a vintage, soul-pop album ultimately failed, lacking any of that spunk personality Puth had trademarked.
Of course, as your typical fangirls, we scrutinized Puth’s Instagram to find several surprising videos featuring collaborations with famous singers such as Selena Gomez and Shy Carter. Obviously, our expectations for this album were set extremely high, maybe even a little too excessively; however, the up-and-coming
Puth has already demonstrated his talent so many times that it was only natural to expect a lot from him.
The album as a whole is an ultimate downgrade from his debut single “See You Again,” as the songs all share the boring low-tempo beats and soft guitar in the background. It does not help Puth that all his tracks are ballads except for an exclusive two. The only songs that managed to break away from Puth’s “Ed
Sheeran/Bruno Mars-like” formula was his Doo Wop single “Marvin Gaye” and “We Don’t Talk Anymore;” every other song gets bland from there.
In addition, all of Puth’s lyrics share a similar theme: love. Understandably, love is one of the most popular topic for pop singers; however, we expected more from the fully capable and original songwriter.
Every track is riddled with every possible cliché of love, ranging from “I’ll be there to save the day, Superman has got nothing on me” to “Should've known your love was a game now I can't get you out of my brain;” in short, there is no range at all.
While we have no doubt that the talented Puth will still remain popular, we hope he will grow to bear the weight as an individual artist and learn to adventure out of his comfort zone. When Puth sings in “Losing My Mind,” “I’ll try to go find some other high,” we hope he truly means it.