With a Little Help From His Friend Paul McCartney, Michael Bublé Found Himself in the Album He Always Wanted to Make

variety.com:

Mike Wass Michael Bublé is the rare artist who actually enjoys doing press. “How many people go to a mall and sit in the food court all day just hoping somebody will just come up to them and talk?” the Canadian superstar muses charmingly.

Already naturally chatty, Bublé is especially animated when it comes to discussion his just-released 11th studio album, “Higher” — a project he’s been working towards his whole life.“I have been in love with these songs forever,” the 46-year-old says of the covers that comprise the bulk of “Higher.” “I just never found a concept that I felt was worthy of them.” Bublé points to Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me” as an example. “I tried to do it three or four times, and it was never good enough,” he says. “Finally, I sat down at the piano and played the wrong chord.

It changed the whole song, I unlocked it for myself.” That unintended sonic experiment is reflective of his freewheeling approach to the entire album. “Higher” is the result of Bublé letting loose and trying new things — a freedom that just wasn’t possible on 2018’s Love, which was recorded shortly after his son won a protracted battle with cancer. “I was healing,” he says. “I’d gone through a lot with our family, and I think that I wasn’t ready to come back.”Bublé was stunned that he was even in the position to pursue his career again. “I was very gingerly and tenderly stepping back into a place that I really truly never thought I’d go,” he says softly. “I never thought I’d come back, I really thought it was over.” In retrospect, the hitmaker thinks he rushed the process: “When I did come back, I wasn’t ready.