Album Review: Charlie Puth – Nine Track Mind
2 min readThe YouTube community has been continually responsible for spawning artists; Justin Bieber, Karmin and Tori Kelly for example. Singer/songwriter Charlie Puth was soon added to the list and had gained recognition by personalities such as Perez Hilton and Ellen DeGeneres which ultimately landed him a deal with Atlantic Records. His debut album Nine Track Mind has been highly anticipated by fans and pop enthusiasts alike.
Puth’s album consists of tasteful, typical, sophisticated and detailed pop music. Obviously the lead single is the most poppy and catchy; if you haven’t heard the chart topping hit Marvin Gaye you’ve been living under a rock. Meghan Trainor does a wonderful job on lead vocals and harmonies and makes the track all the more listenable. Lyrically there are some clichéd lines such as “there’s beautiful and then there’s you” (Then There’s You), still cute though; latest single One Call Away falls in the same category but still serves the purpose of giving reassurance.
You can hear Charlie’s jazz background in the deeper and darker Suffer; from the dramatic keys to the way he controls his falsetto vocals. It’s definitely duets galore on the record; We Don’t Talk Anymore features Selena Gomez and the song suits her subtle and breathy vocals. Renowned singer/songwriter/producer Shy Carter lends his vocals to the smooth As You Are, another collaboration made in heaven.
Charlie Puth’s Nine Track Mind is at times typical of a mainstream pop artist’s debut; as mentioned before the use of clichéd lines and the overall catchy pop sound. At other times the album is still different and makes Puth one of the stand out artists of now; his career is only just beginning and 2016 should be a great year for Puth and his music.