The LA-based singer/songwriter sheds light on why his new project is “a reflection of my outlook changing.”
Miguel has never been afraid of transformation. Since breaking through with his Grammy-winning hit “Adorn” in 2012, the Los Angeles-born singer, songwriter, and producer has spent more than a decade expanding the boundaries of R&B, pulling from rock, psychedelia, and electronic music to create a sound that’s as fluid as it is fearless. His work has always lived in the gray space between genres, but his new album CAOS feels like something new; a rebirth.
On this episode of On Record, Miguel sits down to talk about the growth that shaped this next era. “The album starts off like, “I’m sure of my choices. I’m sure that I create chaos in my life because I prefer it that way,” he says. “I prefer my pain instead of a life without color.” After years of introspection, experimentation, and personal upheaval, he reemerged with music that’s raw, cinematic, and emotionally exposed. CAOS, Miguel’s fifth studio album, is, according to him, “a reflection of my outlook changing.”
If you’ve been a fan of Miguel since his 2010 debut album, you know his outlook changes damn near every album. It’s what makes the smooth-voiced crooner such an indelible talent. Each project, for better or worse, never rests on hard-earned laurels. They each deliver something unique and brand new. And no album represents that better than his sophomore project, Kaleidoscope Dream. Focused, yet sonically sprawling, the album made Miguel one of our most cherished artists. More than the album, though, it was the lead single, “Adorn,” that changed everything.
Miguel takes us back to that moment: him running around NYC, a fight with his then-girlfriend, then a flight home on which he dreamt about adorning her with his love. It’s a song that captured intimacy in its purest form — one that still resonates with a generation raised on his blend of sensuality and sincerity. Looking back, Miguel sees “Adorn” not as a peak, but as a foundation—the perfect mix of aggressiveness and tenderness.
It’s a mix that flows through CAOS. “In the beginning, it felt like it was going to be a doomsday album,” he says when talking about its creation. The album is both a sonic experiment and a spiritual document. It’s a statement piece that speaks to the change he—and we—have endured. It’s a reminder that evolution doesn’t always come from clarity; sometimes it emerges from confusion, from risk, from the willingness to lose yourself just to find the next version.
In conversation, Miguel speaks with the calm of someone who’s lived through that process — an artist comfortable in the tension between control and surrender. He’s thoughtful, deliberate, and still wildly curious. The music may have changed, but the mission hasn’t: to make something real, something that cuts through the noise.
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