Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream Album
Since his debut in 2010 with the outstanding, the young Los Angeles singer/songwriter has been something of a for-the-R&B-heads-only sleeper star. He showed up armed with a guitar, an endearing croon that is both virtuosic and everyman, a coiffed haircut, and a slightly retro sensibility. His voice is an elastic thing that's rarely used to excessive effect; he avoids the histrionic R.
Ecotect 2011 keygen bandicam. Kelly worship of so many of his compatriots in favor of the school of smooth Sam Cooke ad-libs. And though his lyrics are full of silly puns and earnest platitudes, he takes sex very seriously: He's a happily-married man in a genre full of lascivious bachelors, and his best music radiates maturity, self-assured and confident but rarely showy. But despite his obvious talent, he hasn't quite been able to break through to a wider audience.Miguel's 2010 debut album, All I Want Is You, was flanked with some stellar singles but weighed down by a lack of identity as he flitted from producer to producer.
It sounded like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to be a Salaam Remi faux-nostalgia crooner or a smart hip-hop crossover star, and the indecision hung over the record like a cloud (it didn't perform well commercially either). He returned earlier this year with a free trio of EPs under the self-conscious title of, showing a newfound entrepreneurial sensibility and a streak of independence.
Those mostly self-produced songs at times sounded like rough sketches, but they made it up for it by sounding personal and liberated from the demands of the industry. Free and widely available, they earned him some well-deserved re-examination.
They also contained his best songs to date. And now, with his second full-length, he's delivered on that early promise.Kaleidoscope Dream starts off with 'Adorn', also found on the first Art Dealer Chic EP. It's one of the giddiest love songs of the year, a track where ecstatic infatuation is hemmed in by Miguel's understated vocal dexterity, and this album feels like its proper context. He rockets off into falsetto for irresistibly brief moments, and a new outro spirals elegant, trained vocal gymnastics around the song's chorus.
Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream Album
'Adorn' also showcases Miguel's secret weapon: modesty. It's definitively, deceptively simple, a nugget of concentrated sunshine, and not necessarily all that original. But I'll be damned if it doesn't pull you in and make you feel it.That touch of modesty colors most of Kaleidoscope Dream. There's the tender where he admits being nervous about having sex with the lights on. Even more affecting is the acoustic murmur 'Pussy Is Mine', which deflates masculinized hip-hop tropes with insecurity, pleading, 'Tell me that the pussy is mine/ 'Cause I don't wanna believe that anyone is just like me.' The sentiment turns sardonic on the Ryan Leslie-like jaunt of 'How Many Drinks?' , where gorgeous falsetto verses are offset by uncertain pleas of 'I don't wanna waste my time.'
The plush, lightly psychedelic production buffers the record's more barebones moments, and Miguel's precocious vocals take flight on the bombast rather than drowning in it. Standout 'Do You.' Unfolds in an ethereal cloud of synth, voices streaming like angelic choirs before stumbling into a verse buoyed by its own euphoria. Not many singers could get away with lines like 'What about matinee movies/ Pointless secrets/ Midnight summer swim, private beaches/ Rock, paper, scissors/ Wait! Best outta three!' It's the stuff of unbearable rom-com montages, but Miguel's playful delivery brings it over.
He's the rare vocalist who makes you feel what he's singing about, even when his lyrics can be transparent. When he wants to sound deadly serious, he's on the verge of tears; when he's happy, he's practically laughing as he sings.Kaleidoscope Dream has elements of the sort of tasteful R&B record that the Grammys love, but much like, it cuts through its own statuesque stateliness with raw emotion reined in by an ever-present sense of professionalism. And it succeeds in part because it sounds like Miguel's album and no one else's. There are no intrusive guest appearances, and the record sounds even less of its time than the first, reveling in its own contextual vacuum with abandon.
Though there are some unexpected choices. Like 'Don't Look Back', which is propped up by grand synth runs before melting into an interpolation of the Zombies' 'Time of the Season'. That song's musky psychedelia is a good example of the record's overarching theme, the highly sexualized seen through the lens of the eager and innocent.When Miguel isn't accompanied by glossy synths, the music is all about intimacy.
Take 'Arch & Point'- with a simple rasp, strum, and metronome, it sounds like it was recorded in the very bedroom it's ostensibly taking place in. 'When it feels this good then it just comes natural,' he insists, and there's not a better ethos for where his career stands at this point.
Emerging unscathed from middling mainstream performance, Kaleidoscope Dream sounds, at its utmost, natural and easy, an artist set free to do what he wants and proving himself every bit the unique voice his debut seemed to deny. It's respectful of tradition, quietly ambitious, and deeply personal, a wonderfully considered album from an artist who was starting to seem a lot like a forgotten gem in the wake of mishandled promotion.
Kaleidoscope Dream is the second studio album by American R&B singer and songwriter Miguel. It was released on September 25, 2012, by RCA Records. After the commercial breakthrough of his debut album All I Want Is You, Miguel wanted to play a larger creative role in his music, leading him to principally produce and write Kaleidoscope Dream. He recorded most of the album at Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City and MJP Studios in Los Angeles, working with producers Oak Felder, Jerry 'Wonda' Duplessis, and Salaam Remi, among others. The album's music dra.