By: Alex Lee –
Miguel at Kool Haus in Toronto. December 11th, 2012. (Photo: Alex Lee/Aesthetic Magazine)
With the aptly-titled PBR&B’s ever-changing platform of sonic experimentations, it has certainly shaped up to become one of the least forgiving genres—at least in terms of its substance. It’s rare to find male acts that embrace overtly theatrical performances over facile shows crooning with melodrama, an overstated sense of artistry and little to no movement. 25-year-old R&B star—and 5-time 2012 Grammy nominee—Miguel, however, begs to differ, bringing to Toronto’s Kool Haus last night his flashy extravaganza of confident dance moves, an exhaustive tendency to constantly jump around the stage, beautiful, pitch-perfect vocals and broad swaths of remarkable artistry that seems hardly exaggerated.
Miguel is never fully-immersed in the traditional R&B sensibilities that his compatriots so often recycle, one that aims to glamourize sexual virility. There’s definitely a thin mist of lascivious debauchery lingering in his artistic persona, but the Los Angeles-based singer’s offerings to the broad spectrum of R&B is of a much larger scale. Miguel’s on-stage antics were as virtuosic as his charismatic presence in studio recordings. He’s an ecstatic performer, utilizing every muscle in his body to deliver his music beyond its plush euphoria. With every motion and gesture, Miguel exuded a sense of husky masculinity that drips with his unapologetic style of performance. He’s rarely hesitant in venturing the explicit side of sexuality, yet it never comes off as forceful or aggressive.
Tinged with a hint of retro sensibility, the singer’s precocious vocals were able to deliver his platitude of pun-fixated lyrics with earnest. While his music certainly reflects a youthful dexterity, Miguel’s sound rest-assures that his music is never one-sidedly shallow. Compared to his R&B compatriots, the singer’s ideologies of sex are taken into an almost elegant context. It shines with a sense of maturity, harnessing the darkest and the most pleasurable aspects of it. Layered with smooth ad-libs, irresistible falsettos and pitch-perfect vocal techniques, Miguel’s voice was deceptively perfect. Whether he’s singing about doing drugs with a significant other as a romantic activity in the ethereal “Do You…” or asking the audience “is there a God? / Is he watching? / Is she watching?” in the soulful “Candles in the Sun,” his voice was effective and pristine in its effort to ardently capture a certain emotional angle.
Miguel at Kool Haus in Toronto. December 11th, 2012. (Photo: Alex Lee/Aesthetic Magazine)
Miguel was able to graze past tenderness in “The Thrill,” hedonistic romanticism in “Do You…” and sensual croonings in “Adorn” all in the same breath. His body and voice is more or less a vessel, a soulful material of talents that was able to portray him as both the contender and the victim in his renditions of romanticism. It’s draining at best, but it’s all done in a manner where it’s never histrionic. Rather, Miguel’s theatrics are as ample as his songwriting.
Whether it be his self-conscious attention to sartorial details, or the Prince-esque revival of the flamboyant ‘80s mannerisms, Miguel is one of the most daring risk-takers in the industry today. He overcomes all notions of masculinized tropes architected by R&B stars of this decade, one so grief-strikingly influential that it borders out the push-forward approach so held onto by solo acts like Michael Jackson and Prince. Yes, the majority of the show proceeded with his shirt off, but the genuine modesty of his performances buffers even his most languor moments of the show. You can’t help but smile at his slip that had him falling off a stool—one that was supposed to have been a climax to a seductive performance—not to solely laugh at the small mistake, but that he himself was laughing, too.
Miguel’s night at the Kool Haus was a savoury taster of the singer’s exceptionally varied performance. He’s the rare performer that delivers each lyric and note with genuine compassion regardless of whether or not the content is explicitly transparent (it rarely is anyway). But when Miguel isn’t playing his sensual shtick of playing the romanticist, singing songs off his critically-acclaimed record “Kaleidoscope Dream” and jokingly picking up undergarments so diligently thrown onto the stage from crazed female fans, his music and performances are doused in a deep-rooted sense of intimacy. It’s tightly subdued in every corner of his songs, and his closer and current-smash “Adorn” is the perfect example of that very feat. It’s a blend of Prince’s soul-funk hybrid that aches with passion and intensity, but it never reaches desperate lengths. Rather, it sounds modest, direct and most of all, genuine.
It’s rare at this time and age for an artist to be so entertaining to watch and yet so artistically-inclined to present songs of so much substance and emotional prowess. Maybe it’s time for his fellow R&B compatriots—the ones that are breathing fresh air into the genre anyway—to step up their game, too. With a universally acclaimed sophomore album and 5 recent Grammy nods pending, you can’t help but think that Miguel really is up to something.
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