Generally speaking, this kind of sound characterized Kaleidoscope Dream, which veered into modern hip-hop via airy and intricate electronic production and lingo like “keep it 100.” Even as his genre was getting a hipster makeover, the major label-signed Miguel became known as an R&B singer for our post-genre world. Miguel’s too-good-to-be-true breakthrough single, 2012’s “ Adorn,” sounds like it’s streaming out of giant subwoofers on the street even when it’s coming from laptop speakers the bass bumps as hard as the bed frame does.
And in the context of Prince, he’s pulling in elements of 1981’s Controversy (where Prince first got political), 1984’s Purple Rain (where he first really went rock), and 1987’s Sign O’ the Times (where those two elements reached experimental brilliance).
In the context of a genre marked by its sexy-time platitudes, Miguel sounds radically fresh by making the personal political and the sexual truly explicit. The singer returns to California for songs that hint at the state’s musical traditions - like psychedelic rock, West Coast hip-hop, even a touch of punk - while staying wildly singular. Though his sophomore LP Kaleidoscope Dream was among 2012’s best, Wildheart is the first album Miguel’s made that truly lives up to the Prince comparisons. This week, Miguel releases his third album, Wildheart, and proves that right now is his time. To be Prince-like is to be drunk on your own vision, and to pass the bottle at precisely the right time. True Prince fans know that the Purple One’s sound is not replicable by simply combining eccentric sex talk with pop melodies that are as rooted in R&B as they are in dance music and rock ’n’ roll.
It’s gotten to the point where Miguel is often asked about Prince he tends to respond by acknowledging the latter’s influence on his work but never really accepts the compliment. Nearly every article you read about new-school R&B innovator Miguel will, at some point, make a reference to Prince.