Charlie Puth is a busy man. The pop singer and songwriter has just become a dad, he performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” to open the Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium last month, and his fourth and latest studio album, Whatever’s Clever! via Atlantic Records, drops today (March 27), via Atlantic Records.
“I had to take a closer look at myself to make this record and sing about things I normally wouldn’t sing about,” he says of the new album. “Audiences knew my music more than they knew me because I never really gave them a chance to know me. This is the chance.”
Puth’s ambition was to “make a rich, warm, and big-sounding record.” To make the magic happen, BloodPop came on board as co-producer and to push Puth “to use sonics I hadn’t touched before, to sing about subjects I’d never sung about, and write songs that might’ve made me uncomfortable in the past.”
The album features assists from Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, who contribute to the yacht rock song “Love In Exile;” actor Jeff Goldblum, whose spoken word lyrics are worked into “Until It Happens To You;” plus Kenny G (“Cry”), Ravyn Lenae (“New Jersey”) and Hikaru Utada “(Home”).
Puth was back on our screens Thursday night, March 26, for a spot on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he performed album cut “Sideways” alongside Coco Jones.
Then, his WHATEVER’S CLEVER! World Tour gets underway April 22 at San Diego’s Viejas Arena, followed by pan-European concerts in June and July.
Career streams top 35 billion, he’s collected nine multi-platinum singles, four Grammy Award nominations, three Billboard Music Awards, a Critic’s Choice Award, a Golden Globe nomination, enjoyed a 12-week stint at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his contribution to Wiz Khalifa’s 2015’s weepy Fast And Furious smash “See You Again,” and boasts three top 10 appearances on the Billboard 200 chart, including his most recent release, 2022’s Charlie (peaking at No. 10).
“What’s funny is I don’t consider any of these 12 songs to be clever, I consider them to be real,” Puth recently told Tomás Mier during a recent sit-down at Blue Note Jazz Club Los Angeles. Whatever’s Clever!, he insists, is “inherently jazzy,” “incredibly honest” and it’s available to stream in full below.
