Charlie Puth Dials In a Tired Refrain

If this post calls me out as being some sort of curmudgeon then I shall willingly swallow the man pill. New Jersey's Charlie Puth has a lot going for him. From a business standpoint he had the good sense to hook up with Meghan Trainor. The boy's not hard to look at. Not too mention the way his teeth glimmer when he flashes them. Photogenic every which way. Unfortunately his single "One Call Away" typifies much of the style over substance content of 21st century pop music. He's graceful behind the ivories and when backed by a snappy drum off we go with young stud on the prowl scene making. His look ends up winning out over his words. Have you had your fill of boy wonders trying to don the man cape in the name of true love? It's been flogged beyond physical recognition. The chorus suffers from saturation bombing. It's repeated too often even for a chorus segment where the point is earwig through repetition. I'd be excited if that chorus was not mere skin and bones but, if the deli's out of prime roast you can't grouse about not getting your share of prime butcher wares. Translation? "I'm only one call away. I'll be there to save the day" constitutes what Charlie's pushing through on tonight's dinner cart. This dish has light seasoning which may bump up the charming factor but it slides right off the ear like water off a duck's back. I'm not saying lovable reassurance doesn't count for something in this often troubled world we are navigating. Nothing wrong with being told "No matter where you go you know you're not alone." What could be more fundamentally human than that? I don't even expect groundbreaking communication. I merely want the packaging of David's gift to a little bit different than that of the hunks that have come before him. No one claims he should shriek like Michael Bolton or flex sexual swagger like Robin Thicke but meet cute atmosphere can only get you so far before you'd like to consume something with a little more meat on the bones. While I've been composing this post the melody has already fizzled away. I'm not so old that my emotional responses are permanently set to "jaded". As a lifetime music connoisseur I insist on the right to be choosy when the situation calls for it. Charlie probably isn't a bad bloke that doesn't give him a pass when he's in the studio professing to pump out product the masses supposedly crave. "One Call Away" comes from his "Nine Track Mind" album. You see there. The album title swiped the creativity momentum from the single it sired. "Nine Track Mind" makes me chuckle. It could refer to nine tracks on an album or that Charlie's mind gets pulled in nine different directions. Now that's food for thought. As it stands "One Call Away" sounds very much like a wrong number.