Following a five-month delay, Charlie Puth's sophomore album, "Voicenotes" finally dropped on May 11. Since its release, the album has already attained gold certification in the U.S. and is doing exceptionally well on music charts around the world.
Before he gained widespread popularity for his own music, Puth spent years building a fan-base by uploading cover songs to his YouTube channel. In 2015, the New Jersey native gained mainstream attention with the release of "See You Again", a heart-wrenching tune for the "Fast and Furious 7"soundtrack that found him performing alongside rapper Wiz Khalifa.
"Voicenotes", named after the iPhone app the singer uses to record demos, was written and recorded over the past year-and-a-half during Puth's solo headlining tour of North America. Puth handled much of the 13 songs' writing and production himself and put the album together using little more than a Pro Tools rig, a MIDI keyboard and a microphone.
"Voicenotes" takes cues from Eighties R&B artists and even includes a feature from Boyz II Men on the Acappella ballad "If You Leave Me Now". His matter-of-fact lyrics recount heartbreak and the perils of being in the spotlight. "LA Girls" is about "how fame almost changed me and kind of made me jaded", Puth says. "I spent a couple years thinking that I had to have a certain personality to be the perfect male pop singer."
"Boy" is inspired by "an experience I had when I fell for someone older than me for the first time," he continues. "I'm an old soul, so when you get romantically involved with somebody who is more experienced and even more mature than you, it was kind of frustrating when they would talk down to me, like, 'Oh, what do you know?'"
The lovelorn "Somebody Told Me" feels like a prequel to "We Don't Talk Anymore", his 2016 hit with Selena Gomez, whom he admitted to dating in an interview earlier this year. He won't confirm whether she inspired any songs on the album, after having made headlines in the past for speaking about relationships with actresses Bella Thorne and Lea Michele.
"I'm not here to talk about my dating life," Puth says. "I've made mistakes in the past, and that's all I'll say. I've been with some amazing women, and they've inspired me and made me a better man. This album is just about my life and how it relates to other people. I'm not here to bash anybody or make people be like, 'Ooh, who'd he write that about?'"
What's relatable and easy to love about the album is Puth's vulnerable admission of unfaithful partners, being too in love and the hardships he's been through — and survived. His ability to create multiple hits is a true testament to his talent, and proves that he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.