Miguel says he is collaborating on a song with Ware and Cole just happened to be downstairs. He’s spent the past two weeks writing new material in LA and spent time in the studio with Cole and singer Jessie Ware. Following his performance at the Levi’s party, which included renditions of several album cuts for a notably VIP crowd ( Joe Jonas was spotted), Miguel will perform at Friday’s MusiCares event honoring Carole King and present at the Grammys on Sunday.īut mostly the singer just wants to get in the studio and stay there for as long as possible. Cole, is up for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and “How Many Drinks?,” a track off Kaleidoscope Dream that features Kendrick Lamar, is up for Best R&B Performance. The singer is nominated twice again this year. I’m like, ‘ Naw, it’s not that serious.’ I’d rather put them underneath the coffee table or something.” “We had a funny argument about where to put accolades, and wants to put them right in plain sight as soon as you walk in. “I just moved and we’re still figuring the house out,” the singer tells The Hollywood Reporter before a performance at Levi’s private pre-Grammy party at the Fonda Theater on Wednesday night. The singer earned the statue last year for Best R&B Song for his single “Adorn,” off his 2012 album Kaleidoscope Dream, and he hasn’t quite figured out what do with it yet.
It’s no wonder this breakthrough LP led to sonic trysts with artists as wide-ranging as Kendrick Lamar, the Chemical Brothers, and Beyoncé.Miguel’s Grammy is still in a box. Whether he’s likening coitus to ballet (“Arch & Point”) or vamping with Alicia Keys over a tumbling drum loop (“Where’s the Fun in Forever”), Miguel proves himself a thrillingly unpredictable host. And then comes “Use Me,” where, over a plush blanket of grinding guitar, he cops to being nervous in bed. The next song, “Don’t Look Back,” lays shuffling ’60s pop over throbbing electro-house as Miguel warns a partner to run before the moon turns him into a womanizing beast. But Kaleidoscope Dream is not that album-and it’s better for it. To that last point, there’s “Adorn,” a tribute to wholehearted love that evokes Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” and shows just how sweet a Miguel album of simple, throwback R&B would be. All of which tracks for a guy who grew up idolizing artsy types like Prince, Bowie, and Hendrix, but whose voice happens to sound like crushed velvet. Though just as sex-obsessed as the smooth lovermen who came before him, Miguel here projects a far more fractured and colorful view of romance tinted by deep self-reflection, hallucinogenic augmentation, and spiritual yearning. As a result, his second album not only sounded utterly singular-a swirling, moody mix of hip-hop, rock, and psychedelic soul-but it also placed the Southern Californian singer in a vanguard of new artists redefining the idea of the male R&B star (see also Frank Ocean, the Weeknd).
With fizzled record deals and forced image makeovers in his past, a frustrated Miguel Jontel Pimentel took control of his career and creativity on Kaleidoscope Dream.