Charlie Puth, Cheating on You | Track Review 🎵

Grammy-nominated pop musician Charlie Puth continues to ‘step up his game’ with his third single of 2019 (post-Voicenotes), “Cheating on You.”

Charlie Puth continues to mature as an artist, period. Voicenotes was definitely a ‘step in the right direction.’ At this point, the ‘adorkable’ Puth seems like he’s light years beyond “One Call Away” and it’s cringe worthy reference to Superman. And yet still, we can’t quite let him live that one down.  Anyways, “Cheating on You” arrives as the third single Puth has released in 2019, following standouts “I Warned Myself” and “Mother”.  Notably, on the cover art of “Cheating on You,” it states, “This song is not about a person, it’s about a feeling I’ve never had.” Interesting!

“Cheating on You” features nice urban pop/contemporary R&B vibes from the onset. The beat and even the overall sound hearken back to 90s-00s R&B yet sounds fresh enough in 2019.  Puth serves up a lovely vocal performance, sounding much more confident than he has in the past. In regard to songwriting, regret in the realm of love is the modus operandi.  On the first verse, he sings about how they “caught the feels. “On the second verse, the regrets come into play: “Shouldn’t have been so cocky / Shouldn’t have did you wrong.” Following each verse, Charlie offers up a pre-chorus, asking himself why he was dumb essentially. “Why did I run away,” he sings, later adding, “I know it was I’ late /… But can I still be on my way, on my way?” With superb falsetto occurring during the memorable chorus section, this is where Puth expresses his feelings of ‘cheating,’ even if it didn’t explicitly happen in the traditional sense:

“I know I said goodbye and, baby, you said it too
(You said it too, baby)
But when I touch her, I feel like I’m cheating on you
(Cheating on you)
I thought that I’d be better when I found someone new (Ooh)
But when I touch her, I feel like I’m cheating on you.”

In addition to the standout chorus, Charlie Puth also serves up high-flying vocals during the bridge sections and leading into the final chorus (“Baby, no / There ain’t no lips like your lips / And nobody else feels like this / There’s no moving on, I’ll admit / If you go away, yeah”).

Final Thoughts 

As aforementioned, Charlie Puth continues to mature artistically.  “Cheating on You” still maintains a sense of the boyish, clean-cut pop artist compared to some of his counterparts obviously, but again moves beyond the sanitized pop that plagued Nine Track Mind.  Vocally, he sounds well-rounded, and lyrically, he’s relatable enough.  “Cheating on You” isn’t the second coming, but it works out quite well for Mr. Puth in my eyes.

Charlie Puth • Cheating on You [Single] • Artist Partner Group • Release: 10.1.19

Photo Credit: Artist Partner Group