Josh Groban Harmony

Josh Groban has sung lots of different types of songs in his career, but most of them have one thing in common: high notes. Groban has a rare ability to raise his sumptuous baritone above the clouds in a way that feels majestic. To deliver the sentiments of something like “You Raise Me Up,” his signature song, or the 1960s Broadway showpiece “The Impossible Dream,” which he interprets on Harmony, it helps to have a range that soars without straining. Harmony is his most pop-directed record, and he draws smartly from the more elegant side of late-20th-century pop: Kenny Loggins, Robbie Williams, Sting, and the monarch of elegant pop, Joni Mitchell.

Look! Up on the bandstand! It’s a piano! It’s a saxophone! It’s a trumpet! It’s Superheroes, a bold and daring, wall-scaling, day saving, faster than George Benson’s blazing guitar, a Chick Corea synth run or Vinnie Colauita drum solo all-star jam session celebrating humanity’s global obsession with these godlike beings who have become multi-billion dollar comic book, film and TV icons.