Review Summary: Miguel has came into his own sound, and the result? An album that walks the line of near perfection.
Miguel has really changed since first coming on the scene. With Kaleidoscope Dream, he showed he's capable of creating great, unique material. But, with Wildheart, Miguel took the creativity, abstract sound to a different level. This project gives you an out-of-body experience of pure pleasure. When listening to Wildheart, your mind will be running wild with questions, thoughts, trying to defog the lyrical ambiguity. It's as if Miguel was meditating on another planet whilst in the process of creating this project, simultaneously proclaiming himself as a sex god.
The instrumentals are airy, filled with abrasive strings and spacey synths. This aesthetic leaves you feeling a bit on edge, envisioning the cover art as all-too-real, with Miguel in a god-like environment. When Miguel says things like suggesting a female confesses to him - all the while masturbating in the act - it feels like a genuine result of his euphoria. While some would make this proclamation a bit weird and creepy, Miguel has the ability to make even the wildest of things sound natural.
Throughout the album, Miguel shows a confidence I think he didn't have on prior efforts. Even though he shows this confidence, portraying this superiority, he still lets you in on his insecurities and search for acceptance - how he's been rejected by various groups because he just doesn't fit in. Miguel being able to admit this isn't anything special per se, but perhaps the uniqueness of this project can be attributed to this. He's different, and it's seeping into his music in increasingly large doses.
As secure as Miguel was during his previous project, he wasn't exactly himself. The Miguel of Kaleidoscope Dream would have been incapable of constructing the sui generis song "...goingtohell." It's such a lush and bashful sound that transmutes the sounds of someone like D'angelo into a form of its own. On songs like "FLESH" he gives experiments with falsetto, with production that sounds like it was recorded with astroids and shooting stars flying by a continuous, all-encompassing guitar riff.
R&B artists have yet to adopt this intellectual, hazy vibe that Miguel put fourth, but it's not because they haven't tried; it requires such grace and a much higher attention to detail. Creating a project that is as sonically different and confident while keeping it accessible is a fine line. Even so, some will still not understand the dynamic aesthetics and textures put into the sound. Which is okay, because music like this requires more than one listen. You'll have time to appreciate the true beauty achieved by Miguel on Wildheart.
Miguel has always had a great singing voice, but similar vocalists don't utilize theirs as well as he does. His great musicianship plus vocal chops gives that extra lift towards longevity. Miguel takes things to the next level, placing him among the D'Angelos of the world. Time will tell if future acts are capable of measuring up to the sound achieved on Wildheart. I'd like to hope so.
