Toward the close of 2014, Nick Jonas was thrusted pelvis-first back into the pop stratosphere. His eponymous second album introduced a rebooted youngest Jonas brother, with comeback singles “Chains,” “Levels,” and “Jealous” offering a “blue-eyed soul with brown eyes” aesthetic steeped in a sexy “tossing the purity ring” sound. With his third studio album, Nick Jonas keeps the pace going. But as the shock and awe of his suddenly-bared pecs fade, does he still stand out in pop's crowd of vaguely soulful, sorta-bad boys?
It’s a format both created and perfected by Justin Timberlake moons ago, where the shedding of the boy-band skin is supposedly everything the artist needed to locate his truest creativity. We saw a similar “Guys, I’m having sex now” pivot from One Direction alum Zayn Malik, whose slightly awkward album nonetheless debuted at number one. After all, no one leaves a success story behind for the pop equivalent of a hippie commune: The motive is to prove success without other bandmates*.* On Last Year Was Complicated, you can feel Jonas striving to hit his marks.
Jonas enlists Jason Evigan (responsible for co-penning “Chains” as well as Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack”) for much of the tracks' production and songwriting. While the result is a 12-track standard edition full of potential hits, the brunt of it rests on interchangeable tempos from existing, already-charting singles. “Champagne Problems” could easily be sung over Mike Posner's “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”; “Chainsaw” and “Under You” slot seamlessly over Jonas’ other hit “Jealous,” and with a shift in octave or two, “Don't Make Me Choose” could be a song by the Weeknd.
It's not that he doesn’t stretch out from time to time here. “Touch” is a skirting folktronica track, shifting from guitars and dubs as Jonas smoothly whispers sweet nothings (some flaccid, like “I wanna get inside your brain”). “Unhinged” showcasese Jonas’ ability to craft a solid ballad once the 808s and synths are stripped away. Other experiments, like the Timbaland-lite production of __“__Voodoo” and Miguel-nodding electro-funk of “The Difference” come across as clunky, trying on styles that aren’t a perfect fit. Still, the experimentation shows some promise.
The eyebrow-raising inclusion of the last album’s hits (“Jealous,” “Chains,” “Levels”) on the deluxe edition serve as a stark reminder: Nick Jonas might have talent and chops, but he’s playing a pure numbers game here, one without much room for big risks or rewards. Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway from Last Year Was Complicated. We are dealing with a star whose looks and talent became mutually exclusive, and the package is so perfect that it has to live on every shelf, in every store, in every city, in every country. It's a little disappointing for fans who thought he might actually let things get a little, well—complicated.
