Albums: Bruno Mars - The Romantic

Bruno Mars - The Romantic

Risk It All; Cha Cha Cha; I Just Might; God Was Showing Off; Why You Wanna Fight?; On My Soul; Something Serious; Nothing Left; Dance With Me
(Atlantic Records)

If you are a Bruno Mars fan, it pays to be patient – this new album is his first solo album in ten years. Apart from singles with Lady GaGa and Rose, his fans have had to wait for a new solo outing. Was it worth the wait? Undoubtedly.

The new single I Just Might paved the way for the album; a retro soul-infused track that is pure Bruno Mars. The theme continues even further with a bossa nova groove on Cha Cha Cha. “Let’s go to the moon," he sings on a track that indeed goes beyond the moon.

Mars was always known too for his ballads. Rather than starting off the album with an energetic stomper, he starts the proceedings off with Risk It All. The track might sound like you have heard it all before, and the song is destined to become a favourite with crooners in bars and on cruise ships around the world.

God Was Showing Off blends the horns of Barbara Acklin’s Am I The Same Girl, slowed down here on a track where Mars utilises an inventive lyric about where he tells a woman that she has been blessed and that she can walk on water.

A Motown vibe prevails on Why You Wanna Fight? Before we go into Curtis Mayfield territory with On My Soul – the track is his version of Move On Up for the 21st century. Again, the lyric is about discovering the lady in his life, whom he has travelled around the world to meet.

Dance With Me closes the album where it all began – with a ballad that recalls Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. If any track on the album was the follow-up to his Lady GaGa collaboration, Die With A Smile On My Face, then this is the song.

Over nine tracks Mars has rewarded his fans' patience with an album that is silk, soulful and sublime.