REVIEW: Charlie Puth - Whatever's Clever!
What do you mean "used to"?
37:59 // March 27, 2026 // Atlantic Records
Taylor Swift once infamously declared that Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist, despite him boasting countless songs with billions of streams on Spotify to go along with his peculiar right eyebrow. There is no denying that Puth is a musical genius from a theoretical perspective; his viral social media clips showcase him using his perfect pitch and songwriting instincts to craft memorable beats and melodies out of kitchen utensils or the sound of a closing door. The man’s inarguable talent stands out as the main reason why this writer has found Puth’s catalog to be endlessly frustrating, as even his greatest effort up to this point, 2018’s Voicenotes, alternates between Puth writing and performing some of the greatest pop hits of the decade, to some of the sleepiest, most uninspired music of that particular year. Puth is especially vulnerable to clichés and vapidity when he slows down the tempo, which the past has shown that not even a James Taylor feature can save. While I am convinced that a musician with his level of talent will never release an album made up of exclusively subpar work, Charlie Puth’s fourth full-length Whatever’s Clever! does not prove to be an exception to the rule, and instead falls in line with each of his previous records, where the quality from song to song can be thought of as a mere roll of the dice.
The record begins innocuously enough, with the opening one-two punch of singles “Changes” and “Beat Yourself Up” providing a healthy injection of energy to keep listeners engaged. Both tracks signify that Puth has not made many strides in the way of lyricism, although their compositional swagger and instant earworm status make this more easily forgivable. “Beat Yourself Up” in particular has been getting stuck in my head multiple times per day, thanks to its syrupy hook and addictive bass groove. The fact that these tracks are followed up by the inferior “Cry” isn’t a terrible omen or anything, but it does introduce the audience to one of the most volatile ingredients of Whatever’s Clever!, the features. Kenny G’s grandiose entrance to the track after the second chorus concludes is genuinely laughable, and begins a worrying trend of each feature being thrown into a random quality generator before finding its place on the tracklist. For every noteworthy verse contributed by Ravyn Lenae (“New Jersey”) or Hikaru Utada (“Home”), there’s a trainwreck of saccharine throwback ‘80s junk from Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (“Love in Exile”) or whatever the hell you want to call what Jeff Goldblum is doing here (“Until It Happens to You”).
The features stand out for either their musical or comedic value upon first listen, but subsequent listens will allow listeners to zoom out and observe how Puth’s offerings to the tracks are the real indicator of quality, and that the features often have no choice but to follow it. “Until It Happens to You” is undoubtedly the lowlight of the album, and the inexplicable Goldblum feature is undoubtedly the lowlight of the lowlight itself. That doesn’t change the fact that the rest of the track can be thought of as a cursed “Walking on Sunshine” that will play incessantly until you can find your way out of whatever warped ‘80s sitcom dimension you’ve found yourself in. Similarly, the highlight features mentioned above take already stellar compositions like “New Jersey” and “Home” and elevate them to new heights, likely because they were already in the process of reaching for them in the first place. Solo Puth performances on the record like “Hey Brother” or “Don’t Meet Your Heroes” also vary wildly in quality, with the former using breezy pads and yacht-rock progressions to great effect, while the latter flounders with its uncanny lounge feel and some of the more hilarious drum programming I’ve ever heard on a major label release.
On an album with such noticeable vicissitudes, it feels crucial to conclude on a high note and leave a positive impression on the listener. Instead, Puth opts to treat his fans to a little acoustic number he likes to call “I Used to Be Cringe”, a song title and lyric which immediately illustrate how the present is still resembling the past. A cute little guitar solo towards the song’s endpoint provides a momentary reprieve from its truly abhorrent lyrics and recycled progression, only for the track to end in a way that makes it sound unfinished, and somehow make its conclusion even more frustrating than the experience of actually listening to it.
I know I sound intensely critical about many aspects of Whatever’s Clever!, but the truth is that Charlie Puth’s newest LP can be thought of as the musical equivalent of a long run. When first starting out, your body disagrees with your brain’s decision to begin moving toward its objective. Your mind has yet to recruit the energy from your muscles that’s necessary to block out the pain. As such, various aspects of the journey become demonstrably uncomfortable. That being said, the discomfort you’ve put yourself through comes with a sense of gratitude once it’s come to an end, and the experiences you’ve had along the way leave you in a better place than you were when you started. That is, if you don’t have your femoral artery severed by the unbelievable shittiness of that Jeff Goldblum feature.
6/10.
Yo Yo, check out these highlight tracks:
-Beat Yourself Up
-New Jersey
-Home