For a while it's seemed to me that R&B crooner Miguel Jontel Pimentel is somewhat stuck between a rock and a hard place. He's an artist's artist, as evidenced by invites from the likes of Esthero, Asher Roth, Jhené Aiko and Wale to feature on their records. It's a testament to his talent and luscious voice, but it doesn't feed nobody. Four Top 10 hits on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (primarily dictated by airplay from Rhythmic radio stations) didn't convert into tangible results; his ecletic debut barely registered on the Billboard Top 200, eventually scraping into the lower rungs of the Top 40, selling just over 230,000 units at the end of the day.
His main problems thus far go by the names of Usher, Chris Brown and Trey Songz; better looking and far more prolific, at least one of them seems to be out and about releasing and promoting their own and featured records at any given time. Platinum album sales and chart-topping singles they have by the dozen, effortlessly crossing over into Pop and even International audiences. And Miguel? Well, he's not that dancer. He's not that sex symbol. He's not Pop enough, he's not interesting enough, he's just..Miguel. Irrelevant, basic, generic, the Keri Hilson to their Beyoncé Knowles.
What to do? I don't know. His voice is fantastic - certainly less grating than Usher's, better ranged than Brown's, richer than Trey's. Kudos must be given for him not resorting to the usual gimmicks - electro-dance music, Lil Wayne features, reality TV.
His new single is "Adorn", which really should be titled "Adore", but fine. It's the lead single from the awfully titled "Art Dealer Chic, Vol 1." out February 27th. The music video doesn't show much promise of there being any substantial budget behind him, so I expect this to tank big time - not that that makes the music any less fantastic.
All in all, the music video does it's job and can be seen below. Fans of pure, unadulterated R&B will like it most.
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