Wildheart
Miguel
(Sony)
Four stars
Edgy Los Angeles R&B crooner Miguel built his rep the old-fashioned way: his 2010 debut All I Want Is You achieved strong word-of-mouth acclaim, setting up his 2012 follow-up album, Kaleidoscope Dream – home to the Grammy Award-winning hit Adorn You – to be his breakout release.
Both albums exhibited a truly adventurist spirit with the 29-year-old's often aching vocals hovering over a densely cloudy production of staccato beats, dripping keyboards and the occasional flash of guitar heroics. Then, of course, comes the 50 Shades of Grey-type lyrics: while many are unprintable, they do display more of a concern with sensuality, rather than simply being smutty.
While Wildheart continues Miguel's fixation with the politics of the bedroom, he presents them on his most sonically bold canvas yet.
The opener, Beautiful Exit, is simply majestic: a woozy brew of jutting guitars and warm keyboards. Miguel speaks about dying young, but he sounds already gone. His vocals are chillingly spectral as he encourages the troubled to "believe yourself/trust your intuition/you're here for a reason".
Miguel's instincts are spot on throughout the release. Wildheart holds a fine balance between songs that are wilfully obtuse and those that are more direct.
On the latter front, the single, Coffee, deserves to be as successful as Adorn You. Miguel's bleary-eyed vocal turn here is stunning and sits on top of a warm minimalist production that sounds like Phil Collins's One More Night – if it was recorded in outer space. Waves repeats a similar trick, taking what could have been a neat and safe soul song and adds an injection of character through incessant cowbells and deliberately raggedy vocals. Wildheart's thrills come when Miguel lets loose, particularly when listened to on good headphones.
Although The Valley by far holds the album's most explicit content, its chillingly discordant keyboards and brittle-as-bones drums make it a perfect accompaniment to a Twin Peaks episode.
The ruminative main riff of Leaves recalls Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I suspect, however, that this is not a coincidence – both acts are residents of Los Angeles and the songs share the love and disdain the city evokes among its inhabitants.
Ambitious, confident and ever so soulful, Miguel's Wildheart is a triumph.
