Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s beautiful and brash tribute to Motown, Soul, and Funk does not disappoint, despite its lack of length.
(Photo by Pitchfork)
The highly anticipated collaborative project between Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak released last week on the 12th of November after months and months of building following their initial release of ‘Leave the Door Open’, the first track from their project all the way back in March of this year, with many people clamouring to hear an entire studio length project from the pair. Well, they got their wish, sort of. Whilst the project has been released in its entirety, the album only consists of 9 songs (8 with 1 intro track), and clocks in at just over half an hour in length. Personally, I am a big believer of leaving the people wanting more, as I don’t tend to have the patience to sit through an entire 22 or more song album in one go, 9 tracks for me remains a nice length where it is just enough to give us a taste of what these two can offer, without leaving me feeling bloated. And oh boy, these two have something to offer. The chemistry that these two have together is off the charts, you can sense that they are having an incredibly fun time working on this project and working together in general, paying homage to Motown, funk, and soul in a very cheeky and playful way. The duo’s chemistry is where this project shines the most, with their respective vocal ranges playing off each other to create some glistening harmonies, as well as some rather humorous and cut edge verbal jabs to the respective ‘trifling ass’ women that seem to complicate their lives throughout this record.
I imagine for a lot of people like myself, this is their first real dive into these incredibly rich chapters of music history, with Bruno Mars’ pop success being an easy gateway into these genres in a way that allows people to see the rich heritage of soul and funk, whilst enjoying some incredibly bouncy, beautiful, and brash tracks that take you through a range of emotions through the incredibly tight 32 or so minutes that the record spans. The three singles from this album, ‘Leave the Door Open’, ‘Skate’ and ‘Smoking out the Window’ have all performed remarkably well as singles, with the latter of the three being genius in the form of marketing by having its humorous verses and catchy bridge go viral on ‘Tik Tok’, with the hilarious video of Paak lying dead on the floor whilst Mars is singing about how he’s paying this girl’s rent, trips and jewellery whilst he’s all alone. This has allowed the project to meet a much broader audience than a project of this genre would perhaps typically manage, with more eyes and ears being fixated and ready for the album to eventually drop. It pays homage to Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown amongst many others.
But any monumental level of investment poses the question: When Mars and Paak invoke music as legendary as Motown and Funk, how can they create something that can measure up to that incredibly high benchmark?
The features and ‘special guests’ all lay a helpful hand towards the project and give it an authentic funk feel and they create a comfortable and chilled atmosphere, like the title suggests, it is very much an evening with Silk Sonic (well, maybe more like a drink or a quick smoke with Silk Sonic), with Bootsy Collins’ introduction to the record and his occasional chiming in in-between certain songs reminding us of the setting of the album and makes you feel like you’re in an intimate club with these larger than life characters in Mars and Paak. Thundercat adds some psychedelic and sexual bass lines in the track ‘After Last Night’, a sexy and silky track with a ‘wah-wah’ style with spoken introduction narrating a night between two lovers in a very funny way and that is the vibe I get from the whole record. A fun ode to a style adored by both men, this is an effective way to avoid the question I posed before about how you can make something that measures up to the legendary Motown tracks, by making these tracks almost a joke that we as an audience are in on. We are all aware of Bruno Mars’ history building up to this point, making powerful ballads declaring his love and devotion for women, transforming now into this very funky and brash man talking about how these women are now ruining his life (a popular meme right now is people saying, ‘Bruno threw the grenade back’, which is quite funny). With this album being on the side of homage, it avoids all the necessary questions about what this record is bringing to the rich heritage of Motown, it is inspired by it and presenting it to a new audience.
Having a deeper dive into some of the tracks, after the stellar ‘Leave The Door Open’ that we all know and love from its initial release in March, the first new track of the album is ‘Fly As Me’, with some choppy, ‘wah-wah’ guitar riffs setting up Paak to spit these fast and smooth bars before the bridge and chorus (that someone likened to a ‘back to school’ promotion for the local kids school clothes provider which made me laugh a lot more than I should have). Whilst it isn’t my favourite track on the project, I can appreciate the funky flows and choppy guitar interludes whilst Paak and Mars croon about good looking women and how good they look in themselves. I absolutely adore ‘Put On A Smile’ a beautiful track that was co-written by Babyface, one of the album’s big ballads like ‘Leave The Door Open’ and has an excellent key change towards the back end of the track, talking about the typical heartbroken traits of putting on a smile to cover true pain. The dopamine rush I got listening to Mars’ falsetto at the crescendo of the track was immense, building from that first initial chorus to this second instance where the track kicks into next gear. Chills. This is then followed by “777” a comparatively shallow track about gambling and partying in Vegas. Whilst it has an incredibly funky bassline and drum instrumental in the background, it does very little to stand out compared to the other faster tracks on the record such as “Fly As Me”, “Skate”, or “Smoking Out The Window”.
With all the hype around it, I think people were expecting this project to be a ground-breaking reimagining of Motown and Soul when that was never the case in the slightest in its conception. Paak explained to Rolling Stone, that Mars told him, “We’re making music to make women feel good and make people dance, and that’s it.” And they more than kept that promise. At eight songs plus an intro, it comes in as the shortest full-length project that the pair have ever made in their careers. Combined with a near nine-month promotion cycle, the hype may have caused some people to be disappointed with the projects length and this may have hampered some people’s enjoyment of the album. Could they have made a longer and more insightful delve into Motown and Soul? Without a shadow of a doubt. But bearing in mind what Paak and Mars set out to do with their project, they hit the nail on the head.
My Score: 8.4/10
Tracks in order from best to worst (intro not included):
Smoking Out The Window
Skate
Leave The Door Open
Put On A Smile
After Last Night
Fly As Me
Blast Off
777
Comments