Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Michael Bublé – It’s a Beautiful Day

Talk to your doctor to see if Abublify is right for you.


[Video][Website]
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Alfred Soto: What’s the point of hating Bubbled? His “Kissing a Fool” was as much a triumph of secondhand cocktail jazz as George Michael’s, and I’m grateful he introduced my sister to “Moondance.” But the positivity on display here is so sinister that those horns could be pepping up a North Korean parade march.
[2]

Scott Mildenhall: Bublé’s back on his imaginary parade float, brass band in tow, singing another one of his witty songs about being in and/or out of love at enraptured passers-by. There are probably flypasts from the Red Arrows involved too, and one of those plane banners reading “MICHAEL LOVES YOU! TO BE LOVED OUT NOW”. Something like that anyway. It’s a funny one this time though: never has someone so bitter sounded so legitimately happy. Obviously there is such a thing as subtext and “not saying what you really feel”, but it doesn’t seem present here, kind of making Michael Bublé sound like he isn’t such a nice guy after all. (In reality he is, of course, this is just a song. TV never lies.)
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Andy Hutchins: Pretty clever of Ol’ Boob-Lay to rewrite “Haven’t Met You Yet” as a breakup song from a dude’s perspective that serves the same purpose as “Yet” — convincing women who buy his albums that he is a decent, sunny soul with Sinatra’s style — while THE LYRICS LITERALLY SUGGEST HE IS A DICK. It sounds as good as anything else from the world’s most popular lounge singer does.
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: There are Robbie-Williams-in-1998 levels of smugness emanating off of this mook, but without any of the passion or skill. I guess making Broadway-lite pop for the postmenopausal means that it’s okay to forgo a personality, but he could at least try singing outside of a single octave. The lazy grumble of a melody he sticks to here doesn’t make his voice sound like velvet (Mel Tormé would eat him alive), it makes it sound like cardboard
[3]

Iain Mew: It’s weird, but Bublé playing the part of bitter and taunting comes across as less smug and hateful than he ever has ever before, possibly because using those qualities in service of the song redeems them somewhat. Though the most entertaining thing about “It’s a Beautiful Day” is how much the pre-chorus and brass both make it sound like it could turn into S Club 7’s “Reach” at any moment.
[5]

Brad Shoup: This may be Bublasphemy, but I think he’s undergone digital tweaking, particularly in the huskier tones. His not connecting to the text is probably the source of his power, but absolutely nothing here savors the message. Not Mikey, not the thirdhand decadant-Beatles arrangement, not the fourthhand New Orleans chart towards the end. He’s right, it’s gorgeous today. Go outside.
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: This sounds like something from that Muppet movie that came out a while ago, except without any of the jokes.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: People will call this realer than dance-pop, despite Michael being autotuned more than Uncle Kracker. They’ll call it well-composed, despite the instrumentation sounding like a MIDI from 1992. They’ll call it charming, despite the very real chance Michael is the guy who wrote that anonymous XOJane rant about “Crazy D.” (Claiming “let’s just be friends” is your own original line is a new one, I’ll grant.) They’ll call it marketable — and there, at least, they’ll be right. Living ubiquitously is the worst revenge.
[1]

Alex Ostroff: I’m certainly not immune to big band numbers or Beatles nostalgia — or even to the anodyne charms of Mr. Bublé — and I’m on the record as being pro-Autotune (or at least pro-Ke$ha).  Nevertheless, for whatever reason there’s something incredibly distracting about the subtle (“subtle”?) vocal treatment on “It’s a Beautiful Day.” What is delightfully plasticky or robotic or inhuman when used to excess here sends Bublé tumbling headfirst into the uncanny valley. Jazz vocalists stand or fall, for me, not on their technical skill but what else they bring to the table — their vocal personalities, their imperfections and grains and flaws and tics and tricks that distinguish them from one another and endear them to me. Pulling off the happy/bitter music/lyrics dichotomy here requires a glimmer of life behind the mask, and even without processing this guy was already human wallpaper.
[2]

Anthony Easton: Bublé is self-aware and charming; that must mean something. The track is quite happy, and his voice just glides like an otter kit. The best thing about it, is how bitchy it is — how dismissive it is. For someone who doesn’t have a reputation for hip, the tension between sign and signifer here is terribly clever. This might be the first time that how much I loved him matched how much I loved the music. Extra point for the brass. 
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8 Responses to “Michael Bublé – It’s a Beautiful Day”

  1. Haha, Iain, the pre-chorus bit reminded me of the same part of ‘I Drove All Night’, but I knew there was something else, and it was ‘Reach’, which is bang on.

  2. Everything that everyone has pointed out here (the smugness, the closeness to Robbie Williams, the autotune, Bogart’s genius line about the lazy grumble) is why its genius.

  3. I could do without genius in the form of smug manipulative assholes. There are enough of those in my life already.

  4. Next time, we’re all making puns on his name. Cool?

  5. i’m not talking to KSA there, i mean that for everyone. this was a good start.

  6. Most of those assholes you see, arnet in on the joke.

  7. I love how he’s this great singer but all his songs are slathered in autotune.

  8. SUPPOSED to be. Argh.