He sounds like what being in new love could and should sound like. That feeling that all is as clear ahead as it is in the right here and now. His phrasing would be as at home in any love song. He makes any and all moments listening to him good and rich, with sentiments of shared emotions.
The tone is brilliantly pure, clean, and rounded. It is robust and has a glow. It’s like that glow people like to point out when they notice you smiling a lot and you think you are hiding it. It’s that 10-feet-off-the-ground, walking-on-air feeling that new love gifts the spirit. Botti gives that gift. The pleasure in a look, a glance, then the glance back. An almost instant connection. The sweetness of at-first-sight, and first times of all the first-time things.
Botti’s sound is very much about the essence and the pleasure and actual feeling. His sound is a “the first time” kind of thing.