Crazy Love [CD]

With his velvety voice and engaging personality, both of which shine through in every song, Mr. Buble just gets better and better with every CD he records. You can hear his smile in many of the numbers; in others his longing. He feels what he sings, and the listener feels it, too. You’ll never be sorry you bought any music by Michael Buble.

When it comes to the music you hear on the radio, much of it is rash and harsh. Some of it is mellow and wonderful. Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" is a welcome addition to the softer, more mellow side of music. Sure, this type of music is not for everyone. Some people will call it and him boring, too mellow, too soft, but I find his voice soothing and his music a great addition to what I already own and listen to on a regular basis. I really like the cover and the art on the CD case. It is fun, colorful, and retro looking on the inside. I know this doesn't make a difference in regards to how the music sounds, but it put me in a good, light-hearted mood from the moment I opened it and popped it into the CD drive on my laptop. I always like it when artists "do their own music" because they can ruin what someone else already did well. I'm happy to state that even though Michael did do a re-make of some other popular songs from the past, he did not ruin them. They sound wonderful. I was especially curious to see how "Georgia on my mind" would sound since I love Ray Charles' version. It did not disappoint me. I find the album as a whole pretty upbeat, fun, entertaining and something I could listen to again and again. It is well put together and it's nice to see the title come to fruition after revealing what the songs are and what they have to say about "Crazy Love" because love and can be just that- CRAZY!

Okay, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must say that I have never been a big fan of Michael Buble. Yes, he is talented - however, I always saw him as a knockoff of Dean Martin or Bing Crosby...and, not a great one at that... This album has changed all that. In fact, I immediately started creating a playlist for my MP3 player, as soon as I heard this album. It makes sense, though, since many of the songs were produced by David Foster - who is a musical genius. The opening song, "Cry Me a River", has great instrumentals, Wonderful brass licks, and is more like what I expect from old-school Harry Connick, Jr. I was pleasantly surprised. The album just continued to get better. The songs with brass are great, there are wonderful trumpet lines and for the most part this album has a wonderfully romantic feel to it. I was also pleasantly surprised by "Heartache Tonight", which in the past only inspired me to change the station on the radio. No longer. This version is awesome and fun and I can listen to it over and over, again. The eleventh song, "Baby", is the best version of the song that I have ever heard...and, as a trumpeter, I can't end the review without mentioning "Stardust." To most jazz instrumentalists, this is one of the most boring, required songs they have ever played (me included) and yet - Michael brings a new "old" feeling to the song with the addition of the background singers and the sound of a vinyl album. There are a few songs that could have been left off of this album. I was not impressed with "All I Do Is Dream" and "Whatever It Takes"...however, this does not stop me from giving this album a 5!! Can't wait to go listen to it, right now!!!

Though I've heard some of Buble before, this is my first time being exposed to an entire album. My best summation is that it's good. It's not great; it's not bad. It's a solid, nice-to-listen-to album. I've always liked that Buble doesn't seem to have the hubris to believe that he can do better than the legends who made famous the songs he remakes. The flip side of that is the risk that there will be little point to a remake -- if it's the same as the first, why bother? In this album, he mostly does a good job of walking the line between those two ideas. He sticks to the character of the original songs, recognizing the quality therein. But he (or his composer/s) also adds a bit of modernization through some creative updates in orchestration. Some are more significant than others, some more effective than others, but the overall effort is noticeable and appreciated, balancing slightly more modern scores with Buble's fairly traditional vocals.

I always enjoy listing to Michael Buble and this is no exception. I expect to hear some great covers and this album provides that – I particularly enjoyed “Cry Me a River” – it was a new take on the song – the intro to the song is great and is not at all what I expected. His voice as always is smooth and reminiscent of past greats. However, I really enjoyed his two new songs as well. “Haven’t Met You Yet” is an upbeat, fun song that you can’t help but sing along with and feel happy when hearing it. "Heartache Tonight" is another upbeat song on the list and provides a perfect compliment to some of the slower songs like "You're Nobody Until Somebody Loves You". “Baby (You’ve Got what it Takes)” is a great duet and is another of my favorites on the album. Overall, this new album is a great addition to Buble’s work, providing a great mix of old and new, and hits the mark.