Bruno Mars can only write great hits
From 2010 to 2016 Bruno Mars he has released three albums. Since then the musician born in Honolulu on October 8, 1985 has no longer released a collection of songs under his name. “24k magic” remains his last musical achievement. Following is the review of that album that he wrote for us eight years ago Michele Boroni.
Over the last year many black R’n’B productions have had a number of common characteristics: unnecessarily long records, full of interludes spoken words and tracks containing liquid and destructured song-forms, a strong message full of awareness, an approach arty in the packaging – from the cover to the video clips – and an increasingly original and complicated launch strategy.
From this point of view, Bruno Mars returns to the scene as a true “anti-current artist” (many quotation marks) by offering a short album, composed of nine songs full of 90s sounds and atmospheres, without any message of empowerment or awareness, introduced by a very classic launch strategy (first single released a month before, then second single a few days after the album’s debut, together with the communication of the tour dates). In short, a real pop record. And that works terribly.
Yes, because Bruno Mars, despite only being on his third album, is a top-class composer, capable of putting together an album full of hits without inconveniencing pharaonic productions and lists of prestigious featuring. The first two singles show the two cardinal points within which the tracks of this “24K Magic” move: the eponymous song is the classic disco-funk, son of Zapp & Roger and the Gap Band, while “Versace on the floor” is a “panty-ripping” ballad masterfully interpreted with some vocals between Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.
The album is, by Mars’ own admission, a great homage to the 90s African-American music he listened to as a child: there is therefore space for new jack swing mixed with Jacko’s “Remember the time” in “Finesse”, but also the Rod Temperton-like derivative synth on “Off the Wall” (“Chunky”) and all the James Brown liturgical grammar on “Perm.” For the other ballad on the album (the final and very sugary “Too good to say goodbye”) he even called Babyface, and it was immediately Boyz II Men – a very popular black vocal band in the States in the 90s.
If in the two previous albums the good Bruno had also attempted some swerves towards white poprock or reggae, in “24K Magic” he doesn’t take any risks and plays it safe. The only track with a contemporary beat is “That’s what I like”, otherwise R’n’B lovers will find a thousand references to bands like New Edition, Jodeci and the productions of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis which were popular in the charts of 20-25 years ago. Just over 30 minutes for nine potential pop songs that will invade FM radio and the playlists of streaming services, excellently produced and performed but which, while not leaning too heavily on retromania, add nothing to the thriving black scene and Mars’ talent .
