I am unequivocally obsessed with Miguel's "Adorn" and believe that his second album, Kaleidoscope Dream, will rise towards the top of R&B lovers' year-end best lists. I'm sure that others, like myself, are cheering on his style of contemporary, gimmick-free, no-featured-artists-need-apply R&B. By the way, Miguel's "Adorn" is one of only THREE straight-up R&B songs to top Billboard's "R&B"/Hip-Hop Songs charts since October 2011 (Beyoncé's "Love on Top" and Usher's "Climax" are the other two).That's why I was more than excited to see he would be getting a broader audience by performing on The Late Show with David Letterman. As the performance began, the smoke, lights and grey-washed visuals perfectly matched the vintage, retro-vibe qualities that I love in the song. As they wore on though, the novelty wore off and it became a distraction (along with the two-step he stole from my Uncle Bill, but I digress). Even David Letterman had cause to make a quip about the smoke heavy stage production at the end. Distractions aside, Miguel demonstrated how versatile his voice is. The song is falsetto intense and Miguel wisely chose a song that played to his strengths. I hope he continues to find media venues where he can perform live, with simpler production, to show how a true R&B talent can turn out a song on a big stage.
- Advertisement -
