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Kaleidoscope Dream
Kaleidoscope Dream in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $31.99
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Elements of
Miguel
's second album started to reach the public around the time "Lotus Flower Bomb," the singer's collaboration with
Wale
, began to overstay its welcome on mainstream urban radio. From late February 2012 through that April,
released a trio of free three-song EPs dubbed
Art Dealer Chic
. Altogether, the material was funkier and weirder than that of
All I Want Is You
. The high points eclipsed that album's singles, and some out-there moments confirmed that the freaky and daring qualities of "Teach Me" were not simply dabblings.
Kaleidoscope Dream
includes some of the
ADC
songs in varying form, as well as the six songs from the July and September album-preview EPs. The small quantity of new material makes
anticlimactic for some. For them, the trade-off is that they heard the majority of 2012's most pleasurable pop-R&B album digital Advent calendar style. It leads with "Adorn," the singer's second solo number one R&B/Hip-Hop single; there's some atmospheric, mechanical/organic likeness to
Marvin Gaye
's 1982 ballad "Sexual Healing," but it trades lust for soul-baring affection and carries some of the era's sweetest backgrounds and a knockout falsetto howl over probing but unobtrusive bass. That song and most of the others stay true to the album's title and maintain an illusory atmosphere. This sense is intensified by some unexpected touches, like an interlude where
softly croons part of
the Zombies
' "Time of the Season" over synthesizer goo, and the hovering title track, which incorporates the bassline from
Labi Siffre
's "I Got The" (in a manner heavier than
Eminem
's "My Name Is") and some "Strawberry Letter 23"-like guitar swirls. There are instances where the lyrical content edges too close to "artsy" teenage erotic poetry, but no song is without an attractive quality, whether it's a heavenly melody, a riveting rhythm, or a boggling production nuance. The set is cunningly sequenced, too. The loose "Where's the Fun in Forever" -- atmospheric yet mostly drums and bass, with some cool and casual background vocals from
Alicia Keys
-- melts into
highlight "Arch & Point," which is something like a skeletal power pop number slowed to a seductively squalid prowl. In its new context, the back half of that combination sounds fresh.
is listed first in the songwriting credits of each song, and he's involved with much of the production, but he gets valuable support from earlier associates
Salaam Remi
and
Happy Perez
, as well as the likes of
Warren "Oak" Felder
,
Andrew "Pop" Wansel
Steve "Ace" Mostyn
, and
J*Davey
's
Brook D'Leau
, whose baleful keyboards on the closing "Candles in the Rain" flirt with evil. ~ Andy Kellman
Miguel
's second album started to reach the public around the time "Lotus Flower Bomb," the singer's collaboration with
Wale
, began to overstay its welcome on mainstream urban radio. From late February 2012 through that April,
released a trio of free three-song EPs dubbed
Art Dealer Chic
. Altogether, the material was funkier and weirder than that of
All I Want Is You
. The high points eclipsed that album's singles, and some out-there moments confirmed that the freaky and daring qualities of "Teach Me" were not simply dabblings.
Kaleidoscope Dream
includes some of the
ADC
songs in varying form, as well as the six songs from the July and September album-preview EPs. The small quantity of new material makes
anticlimactic for some. For them, the trade-off is that they heard the majority of 2012's most pleasurable pop-R&B album digital Advent calendar style. It leads with "Adorn," the singer's second solo number one R&B/Hip-Hop single; there's some atmospheric, mechanical/organic likeness to
Marvin Gaye
's 1982 ballad "Sexual Healing," but it trades lust for soul-baring affection and carries some of the era's sweetest backgrounds and a knockout falsetto howl over probing but unobtrusive bass. That song and most of the others stay true to the album's title and maintain an illusory atmosphere. This sense is intensified by some unexpected touches, like an interlude where
softly croons part of
the Zombies
' "Time of the Season" over synthesizer goo, and the hovering title track, which incorporates the bassline from
Labi Siffre
's "I Got The" (in a manner heavier than
Eminem
's "My Name Is") and some "Strawberry Letter 23"-like guitar swirls. There are instances where the lyrical content edges too close to "artsy" teenage erotic poetry, but no song is without an attractive quality, whether it's a heavenly melody, a riveting rhythm, or a boggling production nuance. The set is cunningly sequenced, too. The loose "Where's the Fun in Forever" -- atmospheric yet mostly drums and bass, with some cool and casual background vocals from
Alicia Keys
-- melts into
highlight "Arch & Point," which is something like a skeletal power pop number slowed to a seductively squalid prowl. In its new context, the back half of that combination sounds fresh.
is listed first in the songwriting credits of each song, and he's involved with much of the production, but he gets valuable support from earlier associates
Salaam Remi
and
Happy Perez
, as well as the likes of
Warren "Oak" Felder
,
Andrew "Pop" Wansel
Steve "Ace" Mostyn
, and
J*Davey
's
Brook D'Leau
, whose baleful keyboards on the closing "Candles in the Rain" flirt with evil. ~ Andy Kellman
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