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. ~ Matt Collar