Bruno Mars’ fourth studio album, “The Romantic,” was released Feb. 27. Although Mars has recently dropped some popular songs like “Die with a Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT” with Rosé, this is his first time dropping any solo music since his hit album “24K Magic” in 2016. In the ten years since “24K Magic,” he went under an alias as a duo named “Silk Sonic” with singer-songwriter Anderson Paak, putting out the hit album “An Evening with Silk Sonic” with popular songs like “Smoking out the Window” and “Leave the Door Open.”
Days after announcing the album, Mars dropped his single “I Just Might,” a retro funk tune reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s styled music, a style from Mars we haven’t seen yet. His past albums have been mainly different genres of R&B, ranging from contemporary, funk, and pop. In this song, Mars really pushes the disco agenda he has going on by pulling lines of “Hey, Mister DJ! Play a song for this pretty little lady!” Along with a preview to the album, a music video was released showing Mars himself dancing with different clones of himself, including himself as the actual DJ.
The album itself starts off with “Risk It All,” which has a very different vibe from “I Just Might.” Within the first couple of seconds, there is mariachi that starts to play. The immediate trumpets really threw me off guard, and as someone who listened to “I Just Might” multiple times before the album came out, I didn’t know how to feel.
Continuing on with the album, he continued to have this Latin-pop mariachi vibe throughout the rest of the album. There was some reminiscent of Mars’ “Silk Sonic” work and a throw back to his “Doo-Wop” days, but I felt “I Just Might” was the outlier of the entire album.
It was a shock to fans seeing Mars announce an album, but then he announced his world tour labeled “The Romantic Tour”. In the past couple of years, he’s seen touring in select cities such as Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and Las Vegas. This time, Mars is hitting over thirty six stadiums in the span of just a couple of months, stretching from the West Coast in the US to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Even though he is going all around the world, prices are still super high, varying from $150 to $7,000.
Overall, this is a great album for Mars to come back to the music industry. The album goes through all the feelings of being in a relationship, and Mars did a great job expressing this. In my opinion, I’d give this a 10/10 and rate this as a “no skip album.”
