With his Mark Ronson collaboration, Bruno Mars scored one of the biggest hits of 2015. Even though it had a retro style, it was one of those songs that people just couldn’t get enough of because of it’s “too hot” freshness. Yet, there was some criticism as the song had a strong resemblance of many other late 70s funky disco songs. I actually think a copyright infringement lawsuit followed.
The collaboration must have sparked something with Bruno for him to create a great follow up of his own. Finally, after a long wait, he released a new single, “24k Magic”, and indeed, it has that 24k magic. Again, he’s released a funky disco track that reminds you of the late 70s and artists like Zapp and Roger Troutman (whose influence is directly noticeable at the beginning of the song when Bruno used the vocoder for the Troutman trademarked vocal effects).
I love this sound. Even the original music from that era, is something I play often, because, unlike other disco sounds (from, for instance, the likes of Kool & The Gang), it somehow sounds timeless and needs very little tweaking to fit in with today’s music (hence, the soundtrack to “Glitter” - that awful Mariah Carey movie that pulled down, what could’ve been, a great funky retro album - if the movie had never been there).
Basically, Bruno continued to walk the path he was already on. I think he has an old soul somehow. First of all, he’s older than I thought he was, so that explains a lot, but he also grew up on a lot of classic musical giants and even learned music by studying Elvis Presley (closely enough to imitate him… well).
While his early hits had something so new to them, “Treasure” already hinted at the throwback that was yet to come. I’m pretty glad he stuck to this sound. But, with “24K Magic“,he also stuck to the arrogance he showed in the lyrics of “Uptown Funk”, making the two extremely similar. You could argue it is, therefore, a very safe return for someone who’s spend over a year before releasing new music of his own.
Now that he’s back, he won’t be going anywhere for a while. Bruno just announced a collaboration with MGM. You’ll be able to see him perform for the next two years. Yep, 24K star power, right there.
