Charlie Puth makes glistening pop

Sting, Shaggy share chemistry on ‘44/876’

CBy Mark Kennedy

“Voicenotes” Records) The delay in the release of Charlie Puth’s sophomore album has been maddening. He already had a hit with one of the songs, “Attention”, last summer. Another, “How Long”, came out this winter. Now the rest of it is finally out and ... well, now we’d like to apologize for being impatient.

The 13-track “Voicenotes” is an astonishing, glistening collection of summer-perfect pop, crafted by a gifted songwriter with a butterfly falsetto and a knack for hooks. It’s so very 2018 that he named the CD after the iPhone recording app he uses to craft his infectious bombs.

The album opens with “The Way I Am”, and on it he addresses any critics out there: “You can either hate me/ Or love me/ But that’s just the way I am”. Puth then makes a good case for why we should love him.

The songs for the most part deal with youthful infatuation. He asks a lover to be understanding (“Patient”), suspects he’s being cheated on (“How Long” and “Somebody Told Me”), tries to convince a girl he’s mature enough (“Boy”), tells a girl to stop sweating him (“Slow It Down”), misses his long-distance squeeze (“LA Girls”) and macks on another man’s girlfriend (“Empty Cups”). Hey, he’s 26.

But so consummate a songwriter is Puth that he also invites others into his party — and mimics their style. He made the finger-snapping a cappella “If You Leave Me Now” with Boyz II Men and a groovy, uplifting James Taylor-ish tune in “Change” with the actual James Taylor, a master stroke and a highlight on an album already stuffed with them.

Puth had a hand in writing all the songs and produced the album. In the liner notes, he says they were crafted with the music software Pro Tools — and empowers others: “Anyone that tells you that you can’t make hit records and an album that you are proud of without expensive studios, gear, millions of dollars or even other producers, they are wrong”.

Perhaps the only misstep is the last song, the piano-driven ballad “Through It All”, a kind of grandiose mic drop that channels Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. With plenty of bravado, Puth sings: “I’ve already fell so many times but I got back up/ But at least I did it all my way”.

Look, Puth has a fantastic career ahead, of that there is no doubt. But maybe this isn’t quite the right time for his victory lap. He should have let the first 12 songs prove it.

(Atlantic

You can hear the playful banter long before Sting and Shaggy enter the room.

There’s a genuine chemistry between the two men that defies difference in age and musical styles, one that translates seamlessly into their collaborative effort, the new CD “44/876”.

“The album is a conversation between two people from two different cultures, two different islands. One is kind of warm and tropical, and one

that isn’t — that’s mine”, said Sting. “And we talk about various issues, you know, various subject interests us both. It’s not just love songs”.

The title is a combo of the phone country codes for Sting’s native England and Shaggy’s Jamaica and they feel the songs strike the right balance for current times.

“We’re singing about issues that we care about in a way that is not angry or polemic or aggressive. I think the world needs a smile at the moment because it is such a dark, febrile political times. You know, I think the world needs to just relax a little bit”, said Sting.

Some of the songs dabble in politics, but it’s the music that matters most to Sting. And that includes working with Shaggy.

“One of my greatest pleasures was to force him to sing”, said Sting of Shaggy. “You know, he’s obviously a singer, but actually singing in the way that we would define singing. Not rapping”.

Shaggy chimes in: “Now he can’t get me to stop”.

“I’ve created a monster because he has a great voice and I’m taking full credit for that”, Sting said.

In the early days of The Police, reggae was a big influence for Sting, so teaming up with Shaggy was a good fit. But Sting also relied on some other musicians he’s worked with in the past, most notably Branford Marsalis who played on much of Sting’s early solo work.

“It’s nice to bring some DNA in from somewhere else and throw it in the petri dish that people will recognize and see what happens. Dominic Miller is on the album. Robbie Shakespeare came from Jamaica and played a couple of notes. He was just a presiding spirit. There were so many Jamaicans in the studio the whole time. I’ve no idea of most of them are doing, except they were creating vibe. They were there for support and vibe”, Sting said.

Sting and Shaggy kick off the European leg of their tour June 19 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. (AP)