Jon Dolan
View all posts by Jon Dolan March 27, 2026
Hunter Moreno* In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, singer-songwriter Charlie Puth characterized his career up to this point as “almost a decade of chasing my tail.” Indeed, Puth has at times been dinged for seeming too worried about savvily maintaining his image, whether he’s searching for views by rolling out videos chronicling his writing process or hunting for social media engagement with shirtless pics. That sense of self-consciousness has carried over into perceptions of his undeniably well-crafted pop tunes, which can seem overly considered and even inauthentic at times. But his new Whatever’s Clever is a great reboot, his most personal album delivered with an infectious confidence driven by his preternatural gift as a top-drawer melody junkie.
Puth and co-producer BloodPop indulge their jones for buoyant pop pastiche, and you could never accuse Puth of denying us a window into his true self this time out. He fills the record with accrued wisdom and experience, both musically and emotionally. Album opener “Changes” sets the tone with Charlie singing about piloting life’s inevitable directional shifts over radiant Eighties keyboard, a gospel choir that sounds like it just left the session for Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” and a little Bruce Hornsby piano on the bridge. “Beat Yourself Up” imparts similarly earnest thoughts over a sophisti-pop swing that brings to mind Scritti Politti or Swing Out Sister. “You’ve got to feel the joy/And laugh ’til it hurts/And thank god for every day that you’re on this earth,” Charlie sings. On it!
