Recording information: Arundel Dr., Los Angeles, CA; Henson Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, CA; West Knoll Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Zenseven Productions, Woodland Hills, CA.
Photographer: Andrew Zaeh.
Nick Jonas is either the second or third solo album from Nick Jonas -- it all depends on whether the pre-Jonas Brothers 2004 set Nicholas Jonas or Who I Am, his 2010 album with the short-lived Administration, count -- but there's no denying that this 2014 eponymous effort is designed as a statement of purpose, a way to break away from his now defunct gang of siblings. Throughout this gleaming collection of stylish pop-soul, Jonas takes pains to seem modern -- he finds space for Angel Haze on the lead single "Numb"; he keeps returning to cool, glassy electronic rhythms, sometimes informed by hip-hop; somewhere he swears enough to earn this album a Parental Advisory sticker, although it's a hard profanity to spot -- but his strengths are in his classicism, both as a songwriter and a blue-eyed soul vocalist. Jonas' voice is slightly thin but he knows how to deploy it with sweetness and seduction (although swagger always seems to elude his grasp), a quality that keeps things lively even when things threaten to slide toward the sleepy (as they sometimes do when the tempos slow, which is why Demi Lovato's presence is welcome on "Avalanche"). For all the guests and modern accouterments, Nick Jonas is at its best when Jonas plays it straight, when he relies on his eternal Prince and Stevie Wonder fixations, which give him not only a fairly rich palette to draw from but provide him with a good direction to channel his melodic skills. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly - "[W]ith more Timberlake-style seduction and less of the pop-rock earnestness of his previous solo album." -- Grade: B+
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