Charlie Puth drops 'Whatever's Clever,' his most honest album yet

Charlie Puth is laying it all on the table in his new album, Whatever’s Clever!.

On Friday, March 27, the Grammy-winning artist — who recently became a new dad — dropped his fourth album, one he describes as his most honest work as an artist yet.

“What’s funny is that I don’t consider any of these songs to be clever — I consider them to be real,” Puth, 34, wrote on Instagram.

“I’ve never opened up this much to all of you before,” he continued, “and I owe it to you to do so. I just had to take a closer look at myself first. This is my fourth album, Whatever’s Clever, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it for you.”

Co-produced by BloodPop, the 12-track album features Kenny G (Cry), Ravyn Lanae (New Jersey), Hikaru Utada (Home), Coco Jones (Sideways), Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (Love In Exile). Jeff Goldblum provides some spoken word lyrics on Until It Happens to You.

The last song is called, I Used To Be Cringe, a subversive track where Puth reflects how trying to “fit in” within the pop industry and dishonest. The realisation was brought on by Taylor Swift name-dropping him in her 2024 song The Tortured Poets Department: “You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate/ we declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.”

“Taylor Swift had just released a song with my name in it, so I was kind of excited,” Puth said on the Person Who Believed In Me podcast. “I was like, ‘Wow this is such a great compliment.’ And I got a rush of musical ideas, and the idea that stuck out was, I used to be cringey. She’s very honest in her music so I though, ‘What would my version of that be if I were as honest?’”

“I think a bigger artist becomes a bigger artist when they open up. And I feel like I’m not where I’m at because I haven’t opened up.”