Review Summary: The sound of laziness.
Well, as much as I hate to admit it, a recent interview with Michael Bublé proved something that his detractors kept passing off as a truth to be an actual truth: Bublé thinks very highly of himself. Maybe too highly. In speaking of this album, he kept using hyperbolic remarks to describe how much he loves it and said such things as "oh it's so great, I don't think I'll ever be able to top it, it's a milestone", etc. Now, his rather full-of-himself behaviour has never exactly been the most subtle, yet even when it got really bad, I was able to overlook it and enjoy the music. But here, with how lazy and rehashed this album sounds, I'm beginning to think that his detractors' being judgmental towards him isn't such a bad thing after all.
I say this, because
To Be Loved is Bublé's sixth album, and yet he STILL hasn't really evolved anywhere. Alright, there are a few elements of Motown added here, but they're far, in between and unnoticeable. In fact, most of it is dominated by his typical radio jazz-pop that you probably hear endless times when you go shopping for groceries. It even starts off with one of his covers, this time it's "You Make Me Feel So Young." And I must say, this may be the single most boring rendition of this jazz classic I've ever heard. It starts off the album on a dull and all-too-subdued note, and even the few moments of big band bombast do very little to salvage it. And then it's immediately followed with the lead single that left a bitter taste in the general public's mouths, "It's a Beautiful Day". In case you haven't heard it, it's essentially "I Just Haven't Met You Yet" but with more bombast and less charm. Another problem is that on both of the tracks I mentioned he sounds incredibly bored and thin with very detectable auto-tune guiding him through the motions on said track. And there's unfortunately 12 more tracks to go after this, more of the same boring jazz-pop the the has been offering for quite some while.
Which would be just fine if this album didn't take 4 years to come out. On that note, everything about this album feels soul-less and rushed. From the vomit-worthy cover art with some of the worst photoshop I've ever seen, all the way down to the song selection, everything about the album reeks of "complacent, contractually obliged, must get this album out quickly". Because sure,
Crazy Love was all over the place at times, but at least he experimented on that album a bit and showed some growth. Sadly the same thing can't be said here, and it shows in the songs. Take for example his rendition of the popular duet "Something Stupid" with Reese Witherspoon. It's barely recognizable and the arrangement is just painful to listen to, overly artificial and depressing, even. Reese isn't a bad singer, but clearly acting is more her forte than singing, and at times she can't help but sound a tad off-key. And the other covers on this album don't fare better, with his cover of "You've Got a Friend in Me" being hilariously awful and gratuitous, and closing the album off with the world's most depressing cover of the classic song "Young at Heart", which sounds like an unfinished demo as opposed to an actual cut. As for the originals? They'll go right in one ear and out the other. It's a shame, because this guy has mad talent, yet he wastes it and four years on an unsatisfactory, bed-wetting album.
Overall, this album really has no reason to exist. It's hardly different from his previous works, it won't win any new fans, old fans probably will have forgotten this material by the time they go see Mr. Bublé in concert, using the new material as bathroom break songs. If you're a fan of Bublé, I'd even be telling you to only buy this album if your life depended upon it. But who am I kidding, it probably does, so who am I to stop you. But I will say one thing positive about this album: it is isn't completely useless. In fact, Mr. Bublé can take solace in knowing that a good number if the tracks here will most likely be heard at your nearest restaurant or maybe even your nearest hair cuttery, to provide the soundtrack for you while you wait for either your food or haircut. So, it's not too bad, at least in that regard...
