Michael Bublé - love

Michael Bublé
love
2018
Spotify

Standards. This is the idea that some songs are so timeless and so relevant that any person with a half decent voice can sing them and they will sound pretty good. You hear "When I Fall in Love" and you can count about 10 artists how have done some version of the song. This is the space where Michael Bublé's career has existed from his debut Grammy winning record from 2003. His Frank Sinatra impression has long delighted moms and other moms for years now with his Christmas album from 2011 still on heavy rotation. Standards from the 50s and 60s have a special place in everyone's mind because they represented what we thought was the height of musicality at the time. The big bands swayed and bopped along while the star singer crooned away. Michael Bublé does zero to elevate these songs, and instead is content to just imitate. On the surface the songs sound pretty great, and how could they not? Some of the best arrangements, some of the best musicianship and some of the best singing have previously been a part of these tunes for years so all Bublé has to do is plug and play. But what is good about that? Where does it show emotionality or a connection to the music He is singing? The fact is it simply does not. This is high level karaoke at best. Bublé only co-wrote one of the songs on the record "Forever Now" a song that barely does anything. At least with Bublé's previous outings there has been some leanings towards a more modern pop sound, but on love there is none of that.

This album is so firmly grounded in the past that it could have come out at anytime from 1945 to today. "Such a Night" is a real swinging number with blaring horns and splashy drums that is probably being performed five nights a week at the Tropicana by a Frank Sinatra impersonator. The thing about this record is that Michael Bublé has shown absolutely zero growth in his career. This record sounds exactly like his first, which sounds exactly like every subsequent album. He is so sure of this style of music that He refuses to branch out or try anything new. We don't let any other artist get away with this, hell if someone includes one cover on their album people start raising their eyebrows but somehow Michael Bublé is allowed to release an entire album of covers? None of it makes sense. He banks so hard on nostalgia here, as he has done throughout his career, and in a word it's tired. "Help Me Make It Through the Night" with Loren Allred has this Latin twinge to it, again pandering to a whole other group. It's infinitely frustrating to listen to an album that actively thinks it's listeners are stupid and won't see through the gimmick being displayed for them; I sure hope they do this time.

2.0 out of 10