“If you ain’t here to party, take your ass back home,” Bruno Mars sings on “Chunky,” the second track of this week’s newly released “24K Magic.” From there, Mars launches into a nine track, swagger-soaked romp through funk, R&B and pop styles.
Mars is a rare musical talent with an expressive, engaging voice. There are times on the new album when he sounds like Michael Jackson — just about the highest compliment which can be bestowed on someone in Mars’ line of work. The album’s most intimate ballad, “Versace on the Floor,” puts Mars’ silky crooning ability on full display, while funkier numbers like “Perm” and “Chunky” let him get a little nastier in his inflection. Mars is versatile and skilled — as he’s proven before, the sky is his limit as an entertainer.
Great pop stars are defined by their ability to create a song which everyone likes — regardless of the audience’s age, gender, race or political leanings.“Uptown Funk,” as overplayed as it may have been, is the perfect pop song. It’s in the same territory as “Hey Ya!” and “September” — 13-year-olds love it, and so do grandmas. It’s not a coincidence Mars has appeared in two separate Super Bowl halftime shows, the ultimate venue for the inoffensive. It’s also not a coincidence he absolutely brought the house down both times. At his best, he overflows with demographic-transcending charm.
At times on “24K Magic,” however, the irresistible gravitational pull which Mars exerted in “Uptown Funk” begins to wane. The Mars of “24K Magic” is slicker and smarmier than the Mars of the past. This Mars is preening where the old Mars was calmly confident. In the music video for the new album’s eponymous single, the singer gives us a tour of his lavish celebrity lifestyle, complete with private jets, gold-paneled mansions and hordes of scantily clad women. It’s a vaguely unappealing twist on the “Uptown Funk” aesthetic — Mars is more captivating and sympathetic when he’s breaking it down in the street with his hooligans than when he’s riding a jet ski through a fountain in a silk bathrobe.
This new Mars is an even further cry from the smiling kid who first burst onto the scene in 2010. In the video for “The Lazy Song,” one of the hits from Mars’ first album, the artist prances around his bedroom in his underwear, absolutely killing a series of endearingly cheesy dance moves. It’s a simple video which allows Mars’ charisma to come through unadorned. Watching him shake it in front of a wall of bikini clad women feels almost like a betrayal of his original innocent charm — it certainly cheapens his stock with the grandmas.
Mars’ evolution weighs on the album. On “That’s What I Like,” he sings, “I’ll rent a beach house in Miami / Wake up with no jammies.” A line which once would have been endearing in its puerility feels strangely pandering, since audiences now know the singer can own as many Miami beach houses as he wants.
Mars is still capable of authenticity, and there are a few moments which recall the irresistible confidence of his earlier days. “It’s my birthday!” the star declares in the opening of “Perm.” “No it’s not!” reply his background singers. “But I still look good though!” Mars shouts back. This is a terrible, nonsensical line, but Bruno Mars makes it sound cool in a way nobody else could.
“24K Magic” has plenty to recommend it as an album. “Chunky” and “Perm” are thrilling, danceable numbers, and “Too Good To Say Goodbye” sounds like it could have been released by the Jackson 5. The album has received widespread praise for its careful and loving revival of various 90s production styles. However, this version of Mars never seems quite so spectacularly alluring as he’s shown he can be. “24K Magic” has just a little too much swagger for its own good.
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