Bruno Mars returns after ten years with “The Romantic”: his fourth solo album indulges in funk, disco and soul – and is a lot of fun.
Bruno Mars wants to love, make love, above all he wants to dance – and if you don’t join in: absolute crisis, apocalypse, please don’t do that to him. Together with him, you should be enchanted by the smooth retro soul on his new, aptly titled record “The Romantic”.
It is his fourth solo album, the first in ten years. “The Romantic” is not particularly different from “An Evening with Silk Sonic”, his collaboration with R&B grincheek Anderson .Paak from 2021 – and is based on similar Seventies influences from funk, disco and soul.
Mars was once again inspired by the musicians who enjoyed sex the most and most often, or at least sang about it most conspicuously: James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Prince.
New influences, familiar territory
There are always a few new sound aesthetics: allusions to Mexican mariachi music and other Latin American genres appear. “Something Serious,” for example, is an homage to Santana’s “Oye Como Va.” But essentially, Mars is doing what he was good at right from the start: flirting with us in lovingly decorated, tightly recorded pop songs, making us completely embarrassed – and making our asses shake.
Cliché as a program
With every song you have the feeling that it could have been written for a talent show like “The Voice”, but that is only slightly annoying given the short running time of 30 minutes.
The only question is how good an album can be that consists of clichés from start to finish. The answer is: pretty good!
