#BRUNO MARS24 K MAGIC FULL#

'Straight Up & Down' might've given you light Bobby B flashbacks, but within five seconds of hearing 'Finesse' you'll be searching for Ghostbusters 2 on Netflix without even realizing it. Also, can't repeat the phrase 'Straight up' as many times as this song does without giving a shout out to Paula Abdul, undoubtedly still forever Bruno's girl.Ī molasses-slow groove looking to get down tonight by any means, with massive harmonies and bass-voiced spoken-word pronouncements for punctuation - should be recognizable to any fan of early-'90s R&B, in particular Silk's Hot 100-topper 'Freak Me.' And even though the song certainly didn't need any extra 1993 juice, an answering-machine message from Halle Berry and a shoutout to Iesha - last repped for in pop music by a contemporaneous Another Bad Creation hit - set the early Clinton-era mood particularly well. Not so direct an homage, but the playful lilt of 'Straight Up & Down' carries a little bit of the popcorn-love bounce of New Edition's mid-'80s ballads - even if Mars' decidedly PG-13 lyrical content might've been a little mature for the teen-pop crew back in those days. The latter crossover hit in particular reverberates throughout Bruno's show-stopping 24K Magic centerpiece, with Jackson's aqueous synths and breezy guitars providing the plushest of beds for Mars to get intimate on. Nobody's storm was quieter in the mid '80s than soul balladeer Freddie Jackson's, with eternal slow jams like 'You Are My Lady' and 'Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)'.

But if you're transported somewhere by it, it's probably more to the early '90s than the '80s - to R&B that had a little bit of a New Jack Swing and hip-hop edge to it, like the horny harmonies and Uptown production of early Jodeci.ĥ. 'That's What I Like' is one of the least obviously past-indebted jams on 24K Magic - unlike much of the album, you might get through the whole track without getting any particular sense of deja vu.

#BRUNO MARS24 K MAGIC FULL#

Bruno already went a little James Brown on the album's title track ('I'm a dangerous MAN with some money in my pocket!'), but here, he and his band go full JB's, with a superbad soul shuffle featuring Mars in near spoken-word form as he offers his whoopingest rasp over the track: 'Throw some PERM on your attitude!' Reaching back a little further than most of the MTV-era grooves on 24K Magic, 'Perm' channels the Godfather of Soul for the album's sweatiest workout.

Also bubbling under the chorus to this one: a little bit of 'Outstanding,' the 1983 Billboard R&B No. If you're talking a slow-and-easy strut based on sweet synths and gently popping bass, you gotta invoke the type's all-time gold standard: Cameo's 1986 pop-funk classic 'Candy,' which the second track on Bruno's new LP echoes down to the letter structure of its one-word title.

Zapp & Roger made a career out of such synthetic vocals and sparkling electro-funk, and it's not surprising that Bruno would borrow their swagger to get maximum bounce to the ounce for his comeback smash. The title track and lead single from Bruno's latest synthesizes a bevy of influences into one of his most irresistible concoctions to date, but one will feel particularly obvious to '80s funk devotees from the first seconds of Mars' heavily vocodered hit.

Bruno mars24 k magic