Warning: listening to Miguel’s Wildheart in mixed company might make you blush.
On his third album, the R&B raconteur advances from 2012’s sultry, Grammy-winning “Adorn” to “the valley,” a triple-X homage to SoCal’s porn capital. And his fascination with the wild thing doesn’t stop there — the Kurupt-assisted “NWA” sounds like Curtis Mayfield’s lovechild while “FLESH” — an overt embodiment of scandalous Prince — is the perfect canvas for Miguel’s come-hither falsetto and languorous guitar.
Outside the bedroom, Miguel’s focus shifts to his native Los Angeles. From the live-fast-die-young album opener “a beautiful exit” to the fuzzy guitar-driven “Hollywood Dreams,” about fleeting fame in the City of Angels, the songs aren’t so much hometown tributes as gritty reality checks.
Lead single “Coffee,” percolating over morning-after sex, and a remix of Girls, Vol. 2 soundtrack carryover “Simple Things” (the best of three additional tracks on the 16-song deluxe edition) are the album’s commercial high-water marks, but Wildheart’s less obvious hits also deserve a listen — such as “face the sun,” which begins with Miguel’s breathy vocals in an echo chamber and builds to a “Beautiful Ones” frenzy until climaxing with a blistering rock guitar solo courtesy of Lenny Kravitz.
Not everything on Wildheart works (you can skip the overcomplicated “DEAL,” the drum-heavy assault of “damned,” and the repetitive “leaves”), but the provocative album succeeds in revealing the risk-taking artist and not just the hit-maker in Miguel.
Miguel brings his Wildheart tour to Observatory North Park on September 1.
Warning: listening to Miguel’s Wildheart in mixed company might make you blush.
On his third album, the R&B raconteur advances from 2012’s sultry, Grammy-winning “Adorn” to “the valley,” a triple-X homage to SoCal’s porn capital. And his fascination with the wild thing doesn’t stop there — the Kurupt-assisted “NWA” sounds like Curtis Mayfield’s lovechild while “FLESH” — an overt embodiment of scandalous Prince — is the perfect canvas for Miguel’s come-hither falsetto and languorous guitar.
Outside the bedroom, Miguel’s focus shifts to his native Los Angeles. From the live-fast-die-young album opener “a beautiful exit” to the fuzzy guitar-driven “Hollywood Dreams,” about fleeting fame in the City of Angels, the songs aren’t so much hometown tributes as gritty reality checks.
Lead single “Coffee,” percolating over morning-after sex, and a remix of Girls, Vol. 2 soundtrack carryover “Simple Things” (the best of three additional tracks on the 16-song deluxe edition) are the album’s commercial high-water marks, but Wildheart’s less obvious hits also deserve a listen — such as “face the sun,” which begins with Miguel’s breathy vocals in an echo chamber and builds to a “Beautiful Ones” frenzy until climaxing with a blistering rock guitar solo courtesy of Lenny Kravitz.
Not everything on Wildheart works (you can skip the overcomplicated “DEAL,” the drum-heavy assault of “damned,” and the repetitive “leaves”), but the provocative album succeeds in revealing the risk-taking artist and not just the hit-maker in Miguel.
Miguel brings his Wildheart tour to Observatory North Park on September 1.