While his traditionalism can feel staid, the standard of his songwriting is consistently high, and his central theme – romantic obsession that verges on the masochistic – makes for a record that softly burns.
Like the best-selling (i.e. blandest) model home in the up-and-coming suburb, Nine Track Mind is demoralizingly well-constructed as a means to an end, and it’s because of Puth’s considerable abilities, and not in spite of them, that the album induces such despair.