The Charlie Puth we all know and love may have finally found his place in the world of pop, finally gaining the favor of critics with his new album, Voicenotes. It had already been certified Gold just five days after being released, thanks to the heavy lifting of its pre-released lead single “Attention”. The 26 year old singer-songwriter produced most of the songs on the album himself, and included a few high profile collaborations. The song “Done for Me” features the young artist Kehlani, and “Change” features the renowned James Taylor. The final one is a moving acapella collaboration with Boyz II Men called “If you leave me now”, an emotional plea to keep a relationship alive. It is an album filled with these kind of heavy emotional songs that put to music the pain of Puth getting his heart broken and getting through everything, but also songs on the other side of love like the feeling of a new crush.

Long loved by the public since his rise to fame on youtube and his relatable awkward first appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2011, Charlie Puth has a strong educational background in music. He attended the upper-west side Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, where he was able to major in jazz piano and minor in classical studies. From there, he was accepted into the elite Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he met the duet partner that would would help launch his career. It was Emily Luther and Puth’s cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You” that landed them on Ellen and signed to her record label. After spending a couple years working on smaller projects with her label, and graduating from Berklee, Puth signed with Atlantic Records in 2015. It was there that he rocketed to the top charts with his debut single with Meghan Trainor, “Marvin Gaye” was certified double platinum. “See you Again” then went No. 1 and 9× Platinum. But his first studio album Nine Track Mind, which was released in January 2016 was met with harsh reviews from critics. Even though America had fallen in love with Puth, Metacritic rated it 37/100 which made it the 15th worst album ever reviewed on the site.

After the harsh reviews, and his occasional public struggles dealing with fame, he went back to basics for his new album. Citing the problem of too much producer influence and a lack of true emotion and music, he stayed true to himself this time. He spent a lot of time working alone on this album, and it shows. I think his own style comes through more in these songs then the overproduced ones, and the critics agree. Voicenotes almost doubled the metacritic score on this album vs his previous, giving it an actually favorable 67/100.

I honestly didn’t realize how badly his first album was received by critics. Since he first surfaced, I have been captivated by his smoothness in his sweet high range, his perfect pitch, and his musicality. I’m glad the critics are finally coming around to the rest of America’s point of view. But maybe they were the push he needed, because now Puth is really coming into his own as an artist. Give Voicenotes a listen, and let us know what you think.