Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream (album review)

Kaleidoscope Dream is Miguel's second album after a disappointing 2010 release All I Want Is You.
Released in 3 parts: Kaleidoscope Dream: The Water Preview EP (July 31, 2012), Kaleidoscope Dream: The Air Preview (Sept. 11, 2012) and the album release of Kaleidoscope Dream (Oct. 3, 2012).

The title track Kaleidoscope Dream clearly anchors the whole undertaking and is one of the more exciting neo-soul songs to come along in a while.   If you were a genre whore, all of these labels have been used to describe Miguel's sound: neo-soul, new-wave soul, rock-soul (and you might add the ironic PBR & B - Pabst Blue Ribbon & Blues).

The album's cuts were produced by Salaam Remi, Pop & Oak, and Jerry Wonda.  But it's on Jerry Wonda's wonky psychedelic stab at Miguel's wonky psychedelic lyrics on the title cut Kaleidoscope Dream that one notices the producer as much as the singer.



While fairly solid across the board, lead single Adorn is strong as is the Adorn Remix featuring Wiz Khalifa.  The bulk of the album is written by Miguel Pimentel with a handful of co-writing credits to various parties notably Alicia Keys on her guested Where's The Fun In Forever? produced by Pop & Oak. Fun has a nice lilt to it, with a rock solid break whisper delivery that plays nicely with dynamics.  The album is consistently good and paces well but it's tend to drag down rather than build up it's highs.  There's also a fairly consistent pattern that the lesser songs on the album are, not all the time, when Pimentel also handles production duties. 

On How Many Drinks? (prod. Salaam Remi), which is very much in The Dream territory with its echo snap clicktrack and great breakdown, Miguel manages to make more of a simple equation of pussy math.   Whereas on Pussy Is Mine he makes a more earnest plaintive plea.  Where earlier his preoccupation was with how many drinks it would take to in obtain the pussy, here he seems to be concerned with pussy retention, encroaching on issues of ownership.   Candles In The Sun sounds very much in Frank Ocean without the searing emotional exploration nor savvy production sense.  While The Thrill (prod. Pimentel and Phatboiz) sounds in a not good way like Twin Shadow doing a Police cover you've never heard. 

I'm not sure I'd agree with Pitchfork's Andrew Ryce who described the album as cutting "through its own statuesque stateliness with raw emotion reined in by an ever-present sense of professionalism. And it succeeds in part because it sounds like Miguel's album and no one else's."  However I have no doubt about Jon Caramanica's (New York Times music critic/guru) assessment of his recent live show at the Bowery Ballroom.

This was a different thing altogether, past Marvin Gaye aching tenderness to James Brown shouts, and then past that into some soul outer world where the gravity is weaker, and outrageous twists possible. 
He tensed up and then melted.  He roared with fierce control. He breathed deeply.  It was an almost savage performance, and totally draining.  And it was macho, in a manner that felt startling and bold.  All adults should feel this intensely.