Crooner Michael Bublé has released his latest album Crazy Love. (Warner Music Canada)

I've just caught Michael Bublé with his pants down — literally. The B.C.-bred singer is hastily changing outfits in a backstage dressing room before striding out to charm a studio full of excited fans during a talk-show appearance. (He wears briefs. Not boxers, and nothing silky — no namby-pamby mangerie for this cat.)

It's the day his latest album, Crazy Love, hits stores, and Bublé has been pounding the pavement to promote his new tunes since dawn. Incredibly, he's got energy to burn, entertaining his entourage with a non-stop torrent of silly quips.

'The record business is not the business of art. People asked me, "What about Beyoncé? Why can't you work with her?"'

—Michael Bublé, on his unexpected collaborators

Since breaking out with his debut album in 2003, Bublé has projected a certain persona: an impish but classy troubadour with the face of a teddy bear. It's an image that helps sell the throwback elements in his work, but Bublé insists it's not him.

"I'm not comfortable with it — I never was," he says, leaning in close and widening his eyes. "But I understood what was needed from a marketing standpoint, and what they figured would sell the most records the easiest way. At that point, I wasn't worried about [playing a role]. I was thinking, Oh my god — I've been toiling in nightclubs for 10 years already, and I'm now 25. No record company was willing to talk to me, no agencies.

"It's not that I was failing, but I wasn't really succeeding in the way that I wanted to, and I figured, Hey, they want me to be this guy? OK. I went in with the attitude of: 'I will be your bitch, and I will work so hard, and I'll be whatever it is I need to be to get my break.' I'd love to tell you that I'd thought it all the way through, but at that point, I just needed to survive."

Bublé grins. "And now I've survived. I've thrived. And it's almost, in a weird way, like [how] if you make a bunch of money, you should give some back. With art, it's like, if you made it, you need to have some self-respect."

Now 34, Bublé has been singing standards for almost two decades now. He started out in seedy nightclubs at age 16, then did his time as a golden oldies gun for hire, playing cruise ships and livening up corporate gigs. It was just such a gig nine years ago that led to his fateful meeting with David Foster. The legendary Canadian producer signed Bublé to his record label and produced the singer's first album, which earned him a nod for Best New Artist at the 2004 Junos.

Michael Bublé performs in Sydney, Australia. (Gaye Gerard/Getty Images) Since then, Bublé has become one of the world's best-loved interpreters of popular songs, joining the Olympian ranks of Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and Rod Stewart. But the singer maintains that Crazy Love is the first time he has tried to reflect the real Bublé, warts and fumbles and all.

The album features the usual brand of crowd-pleasing jazz and adult-contemporary pop tunes — this time around, he covered the Eagles' Heartache Tonight and You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You, which was made famous by Dean Martin. But certain changes signal a subtle new direction for Bublé. He fought hard to include guest artists who fall outside his customary circle. Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith shows up to duet on his own tune Whatever It Takes, while funk-soul powerhouse Sharon Jones and her Dap-Kings lend a hand on the Dinah Washington track Baby (You've Got What It Takes).

"The first thought when I tell the record company I want to do a duet with Sharon Jones is, 'Why would you want to do that?'" Bublé says. "This whole record was like that. People would ask why I was working with [producer] Bob Rock, or Ron Sexsmith. Ron and I had wanted to do this for a long time. But everyone around me was like, 'No, no, no… No.' The record business is not the business of art. People were sitting there, going" — here he puts on a mocking Kermit the Frog voice — "'What about Beyoncé? Why can't you work with her?'"

Bublé is frustrated that "nobody seems to care about melody" in modern pop, something he tries to remedy in his own songwriting. He co-wrote the breezy lead single Haven't Met You Yet with frequent collaborator Alan Chang and Amy Foster-Giles (David's daughter), while Hold On is 100 per cent Bublé.

Though he is visibly chuffed about flexing his writerly muscles, he maintains that the compositions on the album don't reflect his true artistic range. He's actually most excited about a tune that didn't make the cut: a bouncy, '80s-inspired pop ditty called Hollywood Is Dead, which is about "the craziness of celebrity culture."

"It's just gonna blow people's minds," he effuses. "It'll be released as a separate single. So you know, I'll still write a song like Hold On, a ballad to keep the record label happy, but I get to do this other stuff, and that makes me happy."

(Warner Music Canada) It's a telling statement. Bublé may be getting real, but he's also figured out how to work the system to his advantage. Part of the story he tells about Crazy Love is that it's a collection of songs about heartache, written in the wake of his much-publicized breakup with actress Emily Blunt. Revealing his artistic imperfections, he says, was one aspect of a wholesale re-evaluation of who he is. He's on a quest to become a better man.

The goal is a noble one, but you can't help but wonder whether it's also a savvy attempt at taking back control of a public image. After all, he's become famous for performing a well-worn repertoire. Technical skill is important, but his success is largely contingent on his personality.

All dressed up now, he prepares to head to his next engagement. Before he turns away, he stops and grins. "You know? I love this, all of it. I love my life. I never thought it would be this easy." Or maybe Michael Bublé's biggest talent is just making it look this easy.

Crazy Love is in stores now.

Sarah Liss writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.