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Michael Buble - Crazy Love
| Allmusic |
| Buoyed by the popularity of the hit contemporary pop ballad "Home," singer Michael Bublé's 2005 album, It's Time, clearly positioned the vocalist as the preeminent neo-crooner of his generation. Bublé's 2007 follow-up, Call Me Irresponsible, only further reinforced this notion. Not only had he come into his own as a lithe, swaggering stage performer with a knack for jazzing a crowd, but he had also grown into a virtuoso singer. Sure, he'd never drop nor deny the Sinatra comparisons, but now Bublé's voice -- breezy, tender, and controlled -- was his own. It didn't hurt, either, that he and his producers found the perfect balance of old-school popular song standards and more modern pop covers and originals that at once grounded his talent in tradition and pushed him toward the pop horizon. All of this is brought to bear on Bublé's 2009 effort, Crazy Love. Easily the singer's most stylistically wide-ranging album, it is also one of his brightest, poppiest, and most fun. Bublé kicks things off with the theatrical, epic ballad "Cry Me a River" and proceeds to milk the tune with burnished breath, eking out the drama line by line. It's over the top for sure, but Bublé takes you to the edge of the cliff, prepares to jump, and then gives you a knowing wink that says, not quite yet -- there's more fun to be had. And what fun it is with Bublé swinging through "All of Me," and killin' Van Morrison's classic "Crazy Love" with a light and yearning touch. And just as "Home" worked to showcase Bublé's own writing abilities, here we get the sunshine pop of "Haven't Met You Yet" -- a skippy, jaunty little song that brings to mind a mix of the Carpenters and Chicago. Throw in a rollicking and soulful duet with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings on "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)," and a fabulously old-school close-harmony version of "Stardust" with Bublé backed by the vocal ensemble Naturally 7, and Crazy Love really starts to come together. All of this would be enough to fall in love with the album, but then Bublé goes and throws in a last minute overture by duetting with fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith on Sexsmith's ballad "Whatever It Takes." A devastating, afterglow-ready paean for romance, the song is a modern-day classic that pairs one of the most underrated and ignored songwriters of his generation next to one of the most ballyhooed in Bublé -- a classy move for sure. The result, like the rest of Crazy Love, is pure magic....full text |
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| Billboard |
| There's always been a bit of crazy in the way Canadian crooner Michael Bublé has structured his repertoire, love songs and otherwise; he has the standards down, but he's certainly not trapped in the Great American Songbook. The curveballs on Bublé's fourth studio release, "Crazy Love," give the album some additional cheek, whether it's the finger-snapping take on the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight," the samba-flavored groove of Ron Sexsmith's "Whatever It Takes" or Dinah Washington and Brook Benton's "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)," a slinky R&B romp with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. He also holds his own on a treatment of the Ella Fitzgerald staple "Cry Me a River" (which sounds like a potential James Bond movie theme) and the Van Morrison-written title track. Meanwhile, the single "Haven't Met You Yet"-one of two Bublé writing credits on the album-is a Merseybeat pastiche that seems about to break into "All You Need Is Love" at any minute. "Crazy Love" is another step in Bublé's creation of his own kind of songbook, and there's nothing necessarily crazy about that.-Gary Graff...full text |
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| Ew |
| Due, no doubt, to the success of his adult-contemporary smash ''Home,'' the neo–Rat Pack crooner makes a few too many soft-rock concessions on his new studio disc. Crazy Love. Covering the Eagles, as Bublé does with a hokey version of ''Heartache Tonight,'' seems way beneath a singer with his level of style. Still, there's no denying the sexy-jerk swagger Bublé brings to ''Cry Me a River,'' which here sounds like a Bond-movie theme, or to ''Baby (You've Got What It Takes),'' a funky duet with Brooklyn soul sister Sharon Jones....full text |
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