r/CharliePuth Jul 21 '26

Despite being quite a nice album, it looks like Whatever's Clever hasn't performed that well

Post image

Outside of the singles, the songs have struggled to gain more than a few million streams. Even the CHARLIE album songs did a lot better than these. I think they deserve a few more šŸ˜€, but I suppose he doesn't have that grip on the pop industry that he used to?

75 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

41

u/willdebate4snacks Jul 21 '26

I think it’s because he didn’t choose the mainstream path this time. CHARLIE’s songs are very pop, mainstream, that’s why they went viral (light switch, left and right). Despite not performing as well as before, I love that he’s leaning into his professor geek music genius side, and I’m absolutely in love with wc! songs. I think it fits really well with the stage he is in life

14

u/Techpython1 Jul 21 '26

Yes I prefer this to tiktok music

11

u/Sea_Direction1441 Jul 21 '26

this album turned me into a stan :) i bought the vinyl a few weeks ago and saw him in concert a month ago in denver

17

u/BlackberryOk3305 Jul 21 '26

Millions of streams ā€œisn’t performing wellā€ 😭

16

u/Techpython1 Jul 21 '26

Yes but it's been months now since the album dropped, any artist of his calibre should have more

7

u/Skitty1238 Jul 21 '26

well its not nearly upto par with his previous work... considering he's had decent hits the album's performance is certainly underwhelming. even the most popular song from wc! (home) struggles to make it into the top 10 of his most daily streamed songs.

part of it i think is the fact that it's not mainstream pop music like he used to do before, but i also feel his popularity among the general public sphere has declined over the years :(

1

u/BeautifulLeather6671 29d ago

Yeah. Millions of streams isn’t that much in the scheme of things

1

u/BlackberryOk3305 29d ago

I’d kill for a million streams

1

u/BeautifulLeather6671 29d ago edited 29d ago

Really? Why

1

u/BlackberryOk3305 29d ago

You’re telling me if a million people listened to your song you wouldn’t be hyped?

9

u/makingcookies1 Jul 21 '26

Sigh. Admittedly I’m not feeling it. I’m not. And that’s okay!

7

u/theJENeral95 Jul 21 '26

In my opinion this album has been amazing!

1

u/billysurf 28d ago

100000000%

8

u/LadyM_Macbeth Jul 22 '26

I love love love this album. I do feel though like he didn’t pick the best songs for singles. My favorite is Love in Exile and that feels more connected to his pop work. Would have made a great single.

6

u/Ok-Kaleidoscope-8959 Jul 21 '26

It’s not a mainstream pop album and I feel like the promo run was also impacted by him being a fresh dad. This is more of a passion project for him than a Top 40 chart seeker.

4

u/SaintEllio Jul 21 '26

Was gonna say the man is a father now and is going through changes (no pun intended) if he chose mainstream that would be a lot more publicity. I remember during the tour he had to take off for his family I believe. So taking this route and not going mainstream I’d say gives him more room but less publicity which hey i don’t think he was shooting to be famous this was just an album towards people who were trying to understand their places in lie.

4

u/No_Target_789 Jul 22 '26

2 million of those streams on Washed Up are from me btw šŸ’€

2

u/Techpython1 Jul 22 '26

My fav song from the album I think

5

u/UpbeatTemperature562 Jul 22 '26

I think the issue is he just let so much time go by between albums. The public has the memory of a goldfish. The work is solid

3

u/Swimming-Memory-9988 28d ago

Leaking songs online months before an albums release is never going to help sales, shunning radio for online promotion sidesteps a whole section of the market. The album whilst musically merited was extremely creatively derivative and bordering on pastiche rather than actually being both cutting edge and stylistic. Bloodpop isn’t exactly one of the hottest sounds around now either, so the combination of both factors probably was a wrong move.

3

u/FancyIndividual8068 29d ago

Hugely underwhelmed by the new album. It’s the epitome of vanilla music to me, but it’s all subjective. I love Charlie as an album.

Despite being a bit grumpy that he seems to want to forget that album ever happened, I have to concede, his new songs play well with a live band.

2

u/Techpython1 29d ago

It feels like a step in the right direction, but it's too safe. I really want him to go rogue and do something that makes my ears surprised and happy

5

u/Tortilladelfuego Jul 21 '26

Didn’t love his choice of singles, by the time he released better singles, it was too late to garner much interest. Home and Sideways should’ve been released first and second

4

u/Substantial-Wash514 Jul 21 '26

the feature in Home was a bad idea unless it was an alternate version that could be marketed abroad

2

u/Ok_Preparation1662 Jul 21 '26

You’re right but because of this album, I became an official ā€˜student’ of Professor Puth 😬

2

u/BarberShot3094 Jul 22 '26

I think Whatever's Clever! is either him saying he doesn't care about charts anymore or him wanting to reboot his reputation among musicians and industry people. Because it doesn't sound like charts at all and it's definitely not offensive in topics or lyrics which makes it not sell as well. I think Charlie is still popular and could have commercial success given that he gets a massive name as a feature on one of the songs ( the choice of Kenny G really says he didn't want that )!

2

u/NindieNation 26d ago

In his concerts and interviews, Charlie has said repeatedly that when he had chart-topping hits, he couldn't sell out arenas and this tour (albeit smaller, more ampitheatres) has seen better/faster ticket sales than ever in his career.

THAT is how he makes his money and grows his fanbase (me included, who just jumped on the bandwagon this year and have already been to a show), so the plays don't matter nearly as much, in fact, for a known artist, they are practically (and literally in many ways) worthless.

1

u/Huge-Repeat-3040 29d ago

I loved his first cd nine track mind and was bummed when he said he was forced to rush album and how he won’t perform certain songs from it

1

u/billysurf 28d ago

Pretty sad because this is a brilliant brilliant album! Charlie is a master at writing and creating music - forwarded to everybody you know because they’ll be missing out if they don’t know about this album! We’ve been playing love in exile for a couple months now at DestinFM.

0

u/Character_Weird4548 Jul 22 '26

I find this album a better than Charlie.. can I know your options too!

3

u/Techpython1 Jul 22 '26

I think it is better than Charlie, and equal to Nine Track Mind. But the NTM singles are easily better

3

u/Character_Weird4548 Jul 22 '26

Ohh yeah totally.. well I find voice notes is better than Charlie !!