Call Bublé ‘irresponsible’

I had been wanting to find out if Hilary can indeed dance and how much Marc Anthony has influenced Jennifer or if a Pinoy Mark has a chance at the hit charts with his new album of oldies. But then I made the mistake of putting another CD in the machine and promptly forgot about everybody else. So swoony and dreamy, I guess that is how Michael Bublé’s new release Call Me Irresponsible will affect everyone.

Bublé is really one very lucky guy. Packaged as a young interpreter of the standards, he has no cause for worry about what to do with his albums. In fact his fans feel dismayed wherever he shows signs of deviating from his usual self. So while other artists have to scrounge around for new songs or go through the ecstasy and agony of writing their own materials and gimmicks to sell their albums, all that Bublé has to do is pluck one title after another from a veritable treasure trove of the greatest songs ever written.

The only problem I see in Bublé’s case is the fact that because he sings the great old songs he also has to withstand comparison with the greatest singers. So how do you think will a kid from Vancouver stand against Sinatra, Ella, Sammy or Sarah and others in the pantheon of immortals? And what about those he will most likely run across at work like Tony or Rod? Thankfully, it seems like Bublé was early on guided in the right direction and singing plakang plaka like his heroes were never a problem.

I read that it was his grandfather who introduced him to old music and got him his first gigs. So I guess we should thank Granddaddy for telling Michael about the value of being an original. Then later on, there came David Foster, the hitmaking producer, arranger, composer whose list of singers include Barbra, Whitney, Celine, Josh and many others. It was Foster who took charge of Bublé’s albums, helped the newcomer pick out songs that are right for him, The Way You Look Tonight, who taught him to stray a bit with original works like Home but never too much or for too long and to develop his own brand of phrasing.

Those lessons found Bublé breezing with aplomb through his early studio albums Michael Bublé and the Platinum selling It’s Time. Now once again it puts him through his paces excellently in what is so far his best to date, the recently released Call Me Irresponsible.

With Foster again as producer Bublé keeps to his tested formula and once more challenges the greats. Frank Sinatra for Call Me Irresponsible, Tony Bennett for I’ve Got the World on a String, Ella Fitzgerald for The Best is Yet to Come, and Mel Torme for Comin’ Home Baby. Then he inputs something of his own like the gospel-tinged arrangement of That’s Life, a swinging take on the soul classic Me & Mrs. Jones, a duet of Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight with Brazilian artist Ivan Lins and even a spicy Latin version of Mancini’s It Had Better Be Tonight.

Bublé got to write two new compositions, Lost and Everything, which like his Home shows big chart potentials. I also like the fact that though modern in tone, these blend in very well with the standard tunes.

Everything about Call Me Irresponsible is competently done. No missteps or false notes anywhere in this album. What I am gladdest about though is that it also includes Leonard Cohen’s sexy I’m Your Man, which I have not heard in a long time, an Always on My Mind which though different is comparable to the great Presley version and Dream, which must be the dreamiest.

Hits of the week

And now the hits of the week as per the Billboard Magazine listings starting with the first 20 titles from the Top 200 Albums chart: The Best Damn Thing by Avril Lavigne; Ain’t Nothing Like Me by Joe; Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails; Now 24 by Various Artists; Daughtry by Daughtry; Konvicted by Akon; Favorite Worst Nightmare by the Artic Monkeys; Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood; Waking Up Laughing by Martina McBride and Let It Go by Tim McGraw.

The Top 10 tunes in the Hot 100 chart are: Makes Me Wonder by the Maroon 5; Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne; Give It to Me by Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake; Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’) by T-Pain featuring Yung Joc; Because of You by Ne-Yo; I’ll Stand by You by Carrie Underwood; Glamorous by Fergie featuring Ludacris; Never Again by Kelly Clarkson; Don’t Matter by Akon; and The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani featuring Akon.