Sings
a seemingly bruised, slightly battered and passionate-sounding
Michael Bublé at the start of his new collection
of songs on “Crazy Love.” The song “Cry
Me A River” is a story full of sound and fury
– of love gone wrong. Bublé’s performance
embodies the very essence of the soul of a man whose
heart has been torn apart. A bummer tent of rejection
and rage.
And
that’s just the first song!
You
might think you know that tune “Cry Me A River”
because it’s already been covered with sly and
subtle contempt by artists as diverse as Ella Fitzgerald
to Joe Cocker. But Bublé’s version breathes
fresh new fire into the torrid torch song in a while
different and often wrenching way. “My songs
have always been about love – mine and everyone
else’s. But this time it was a little more extreme
– and I dug deeper – way deeper,” says
Bublé about the collection.
Right
away you can feel the real.
For
starters, Michael Bublé wanted the doors of
the studio left open during the recording sessions
for “Crazy Love.” He wanted to hear the
drums bleed into the horn section. He wanted his fans
to feel what it was like in the studio - to feel like
they were sitting with him - to have them be part
of his experience. So the engineers miked the floor
and put up sky stand microphones and it was all recorded
just like that with the thrill of the moment in mind
– even though the songs were written over the
course of 80 years. It wasn’t all that different
from the way it might have been in a Louis Armstrong
session in the '40s or even Elvis Presley in the late
50s. The strings would get to carry an extra micro-vibration
along with the bows. Sometimes acapella - other times
with live bands and even huge orchestras - even some
sessions with primitive 8-track recording devices
that are a rarity in the crystalline perfection sound
of 2009. But it isn't just the time period that is
crucial but the breadth of emotional territory a man
is willing to live through and share by coming clean
emotionally -- in front of a bunch of strangers no
less.
Aside
from discovering a fresh way to deliver the live authentic
feeling musical goods he is known for, his choice
of material shows an artist still hungry to innovate
and make his mark both as a stylist, but also as a
songwriter. He has already proven his mettle composing
the smash “Home” that is the remembrance
song for so many soldiers and their loved ones in
these times of war. The homesick homage scored as
a number one hit around the world. More evidence of
the song’s power would come from cowboy crooner
Blake Sheldon's No. 1 country version of "Home."
And lest we forget Michael's performance of his song
"Everything" which launched gazillion of
newlywed’s first dance as Mr. and Mrs. That voice
has evolved from breezy, funny, and passionate. Now
it’s sometimes as strong as a hockey player with
a stick. Old fans will quickly notice that the callow
youth of MB yore has given way to a complex man who
takes the stage in top form even in the recording
studio.
Like
it or not, Michael Bublé is now at what playwright
David Mamet once referred to as "The Big Table.”
The place comes with weight and license to express
any emotion artistically as long as it is authentic.
Are you willing to be taken at your word? Or lyrics?
Now at the big table of singers who can sell out Madison
Square Garden, he has to summon the heat and nerve
to navigate the icebergs and cruise ships at sail
on the ocean of love. Yet, a smile is still easy to
come by on Michael's face. His essence remains solid
as a rock. Like Elvis he is a guy girls love and many
guys want to be like. He's been a heart breaker a
few times. (OK, maybe more than a few). And keeps
his childhood friends and family close to him always.
It's
also impressive the wide bite Michael tears imaginatively
from the fantastically varied American Lovesong Feast.
He goes from Live at the Sands to Heartbreak Hotel
in a skipped heartbeat. In many of the tunes, too,
you hear that love of melody matched with a clever
lyrical refrain.
The
open door feeling is taken a step further on the two
new songs Michael wrote including "Hold On"
and the first single “Haven’t Met You Yet,”
which carries a Beatles vibe with even the fabs Love-love-loooove
refrain. Though the Beatles as a band had long broken
up by the time he was born in British Columbia in
1975, it is clear he has absorbed the Quirky Queen's
Quartet with Mersey Beat playful melodies with an
optimistic message.
It
would have been easier to kick back, but instead he
has the cojones to take the title cut, already one
of the best loved songs from the canon of no one less
weighty in the music cosmos than Van Morrison. “When
I sing ‘Crazy Love’ it’s not that I
am going to sing better or sound better than Van Morrison,
it's that it's going to be different than Van Morrison.
It is going to be my interpretation of the song. That
can only come from my life experience and what I have
gone through. Or the love or the loss I've gone through.”
You can listen and decide if he sells his version.
“One
of the great challenges of a song stylist is to take
highly familiar songs like "Stardust" and
"Georgia On My Mind" already recorded by
hundreds of artists and ask myself, can I bring something
special to this song? Otherwise why waste everyone's
time in the studio -- just go get drunk and sing at
a Karaoke bar -- and I've done that too!"
You
hear many facets of a man from the optimistic happy
go lucky boy, the angry jilted ex - a perfect boyfriend,
- a maybe not-so-perfect suitor or the only man in
a crowded room. You hear him sing of accepting lasting
friendship as a replacement following a bitter-ended
break-up as is recounted in the story of the star-crossed
couple who broke up but never break their connection
in the Bublé penned "Hold On." Or
the heartbreaking final scene in "At This Moment."
Another
door opened on a tiny little studio hidden away in
the noir bowels of Brooklyn where Michael convened
with a comparatively stone age 8-track device and
recorded a Motown vibed swinging harmonious r &
b tune that was a hit for Dinah Washington and Brook
Benton as a duet in 1960. On this go round, he sang
with the legendary Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.
”It was completely outside of what I've ever
done-- out of my comfort zone but I had a blast,”
says Bublé.
Bublé
reveals a rowdy world weary party animal in a reworking
of the great country rocker "Heartache Tonight"
written by rugged rock legends and a mega-hit for
the Eagles. And then returns to a sentimental yet
again hopeful "All I do Is Dream of You.”
Reaching both further out into the margins of other
songs to interpret his deeper truth is the pain and
happiness the resides within Bublé as he delivers
the wise and almost wistful goods of “You're
Nobody Till Somebody Loves You” while at the
same time taking it cool even beyond Dean Martin,
one of Michael's idols.
After
all, the trademark of Bublé's love songs is
a voice that evokes his passion for life and an edgy
sense of humanity and romance. The honesty of feeling
sprawls out in the vocals that cut through the night
like a dark echo of an aching heart.
It
surely becomes clear listening to “Crazy Love”
that you don't need to read the headlines of a gossip
tabloid or read obscene tweets to know Michael has
had his heart walking around the block of late. But
just as often you can find him basking in the sunshine
of the day.
As
Michael Bublé opens wide the doors to his own
emotions for the world to see on “Crazy Love”,
he knows he has no other choice. "I can't bullshit
my fans, he says. They will know it’s real because
they will feel it too -- and after that we are no
longer strangers." Credit: Michael
Buble official website
Media
Man does not represent Michael Buble
Jeff
Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds
Public
thank you to Grant Galea
for his support of worthy causes including Barnardos
and ROC Presents campaign,
and Jac Bowie for her fantastic
work in society and the entertainment industry. Congratulations
to Sony BMG for their great
work with beyondblue.
