West Hollywood, Calif. \u201cGa-JENK-jenk-ga-JENK-jenk-ga-JENK,\u201d Michael Bubl\u00e9 sang, strumming an imaginary guitar with his right hand as his\u2026<\/b>
\nWest Hollywood, Calif.
\u201cGa-JENK-jenk-ga-JENK-jenk-ga-JENK,\u201d Michael Bubl\u00e9 sang, strumming an imaginary guitar with his right hand as his left foot kept time on an imaginary kick drum. \u201cBa-BA-da-BOOM!\u201d
Seated \u2014 just barely \u2014 at a dining table in a West Hollywood hotel suite, the throwback crooner was excitedly using his body to demonstrate a vintage Quincy Jones groove he said he couldn\u2019t get out of his head while he was recording his new album, \u201cLove.\u201d
In the studio Bubl\u00e9 would play the hard-swinging rhythm, from Jones\u2019 arrangement of the standard \u201cPlease Be Kind,\u201d over and over on his laptop; he\u2019d badger his producer, David Foster, to help him match the groove to another tune.
\u201cWe must have gone through 40 different songs,\u201d Bubl\u00e9 recalled, until finally they hit upon the right one: \u201cI Only Have Eyes for You,\u201d the dreamy romantic ballad that, sure enough, sounds great atop Jones\u2019 jumping beat \u2014 tender but sexy, earnest yet witty, timeless, but also fresh in a way that ditty hasn\u2019t felt in years.
\u201cI was, like, \u2018Aha!\u2019 \u201d he said, describing the result as a long-fought creative victory. Then again, he added, the real win might\u2019ve been that he was fighting at all.
Two years ago, this Canadian singer \u2014 who rose to fame in the early 2000s with his ring-a-ding revival of pop classics such as \u201cFeeling Good\u201d and \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me\u201d \u2014 abruptly put his career on hold after his son Noah, then just 3, was diagnosed with liver cancer.
Bubl\u00e9 abandoned promotion of a record he\u2019d just released; he called off a planned world tour. The suggestion was that he might be finished with music, unable to focus on anything that didn\u2019t directly correspond to his son\u2019s wellness.
Now Bubl\u00e9 is back. With Noah in remission, the 43-year-old singer says he made \u201cLove\u201d \u2014 the album\u2019s official title is the shiny red heart emoji \u2014 as a means of moving beyond the struggle that turned his life upside down.
\u201cI told myself, if I do another record, it has to be a total love fest,\u201d he said over coffee on a recent afternoon. He walked in wearing a black leather jacket, and when he took it off, the names of his three children \u2014 Noah along with 2-year-old Elias and a daughter, Vida, born in July \u2014 could be seen tattooed on the inside of his right arm. (Bubl\u00e9 is married to the Argentinean actress Luisana Lopilato.)
Yet as much as \u201cLove\u201d represents a way forward, it\u2019s also a return, after 2016\u2019s unconvincing \u201cNobody but Me,\u201d to what Bubl\u00e9 does best, which is re-imagining durable standards with style and emotion.
Working again with Foster, who\u2019d produced Bubl\u00e9\u2019s first several albums before sitting out his last few, the singer gives \u201cWhen I Fall in Love\u201d a lush romantic throb and presents \u201cLa Vie en Rose\u201d as a yearning duet with the brainy jazz star Cecile McLorin Salvant; \u201cMy Funny Valentine\u201d gets a cool spy-movie makeover, while \u201cUnforgettable\u201d recovers the grown-up sensuality of a tune that\u2019s become a staple of father-daughter dances.
Last week, \u201cLove\u201d entered Billboard\u2019s album chart at No. 2, with Bubl\u00e9\u2019s quadruple-platinum Christmas record from 2011 making its annual reappearance on the tally not far behind.
Asked how the experience with Noah shaped the album, Bubl\u00e9 said it made him want to create something with some of the same compassion that he and his wife had been shown.
\u201cIt\u2019s really easy right now to look outside your bubble and think that the world has become this cynical, terrible place,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we saw a lot of good. And I think both of us felt a responsibility to pay it forward.\u201d
He was less eager to go into detail about the pain that brought on that kindness.
\u201cMy son\u2019s story is a story he\u2019s going to tell one day,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not for me. And I don\u2019t want him to be exploited in any way, or for me to do that even accidentally.\u201d
Indeed, one wonders if Bubl\u00e9 has developed some stock responses as he\u2019s made the rounds \u2014 from \u201cCarpool Karaoke\u201d to the \u201cToday\u201d show to interviews like this one \u2014 talking up his album: carefully crafted statements that satisfy the appetite for celebrity confession without commodifying a family\u2019s private trauma.
He nodded in recognition of the idea.
\u201cI\u2019m not careful with my words, but I\u2019m careful with the information,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve had a few interviews where I\u2019ve said, straight up, \u2018I know you\u2019re a good person doing your job, but I\u2019d like to move on, and if we can\u2019t then we should end this now.\u2019
\u201cBut it\u2019s weird, man. I can\u2019t wait to never talk about it again. At the same time, it\u2019s impossible for me not to acknowledge that everything I am \u2014 everything I\u2019m doing \u2014 is because of it.
\u201cAnd you hear that in this music. I think you hear clarity.\u201d
Noah\u2019s sickness triggered a realization, Bubl\u00e9 explained, regarding his reasons for singing.
\u201cBefore this all happened, I\u2019d kind of forgotten what it was I loved in the first place,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of enjoying the moment, I was starting to worry about losing what I had.\u201d
Convinced he needed to shore up his fan base \u2014 he was obsessing over record sales and \u201cticket numbers in Albuquerque\u201d \u2014 he took a hard turn toward the Top 40 on \u201cNobody but Me,\u201d working with producers and writers who pumped up his sound with muscular hip-hop-style beats.
\u201cI thought I needed to be someone else,\u201d he said.
Today he stands by the original songs he wrote for the earlier record, including the title track, which featured an unlikely rap verse. But the presentation, he admits, was iffy.
\u201cPerforming on TV, I suddenly didn\u2019t know how to move,\u201d he recalled with a laugh. To demonstrate what he meant \u2014 you gather pretty quickly that Bubl\u00e9 is a guy given to demonstration \u2014 he pulled out his phone and played a clip of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell\u2019s comically awkward character from \u201cTalladega Nights.\u201d
\u201cThat was me, basically: \u2018What do I do with my hands?\u2019 \u201d
Bubl\u00e9 seems comfortable again on the more old-fashioned \u201cLove\u201d; this is the singer in the natural sweet spot he\u2019s happier than ever to occupy.
\u201cMaking the music I love with the people I love \u2014 that\u2019s what\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes people don\u2019t get that perspective until the very end of their career.
\u201cIt didn\u2019t happen like that for me.\u201d
Michael Bubl\u00e9
Little Caesars Arena
March 1
Tickets start at $107
\u2018Love\u2019
Michael Bubl\u00e9
Reprise<\/p>\n