24K Magic

by Bruno Mars

Overview

Released four years after the multi-platinum Unorthodox Jukebox, 24K Magic -- or XXIVK Magic, if you're foolish enough to go by the cover -- might as well be considered the full-length sequel to "Uptown Funk," Bruno Mars' 2014 hit collaboration with Mark Ronson. On his third album, Mars, joined primarily by old comrades Philip Lawrence, Brody Brown, and James Fauntleroy, sheds the reggae and new wave inspirations and goes all-out R&B. This is less an affected retro-soul pastiche -- like, say, The Return of Bruno -- than it is an amusing '80s-centric tribute to black radio. Sonically, '80s here means the gamut and the aftershocks felt the following decade, from the sparking midtempo groove in "Chunky," which recalls Shalamar even more than album two's "Treasure," to some full-blooded new jack swing moves. The clock is turned back a couple more decades to passable strutting James Brown-isms in "Perm," while "Too Good to Say Goodbye," co-written by Babyface, draws its structure and certain components from early-'70s Philly soul. Almost all of the material involves Mars in winking bad-boy player mode. He's often just ampin' like Bobby, yet the performances are undeniable, dealt out with all the determination and attitude of a kid who just bought a custom lavender Razz with his paper route money. Lead single "24K Magic" is a scrupulous compound of early-'80s funk tricks, another needed injection of good-time energy into commercial airwaves, but the album's true triumph is buried near the end -- not that it takes long to get there -- and scrapes the dawn of the '90s. In living color, decked out with a rattling breakbeat and zipping bassline, "Finesse" revisits the era when producers like Teddy Riley, Dave "Jam" Hall, and Dr. Freeze pushed their genre forward by fusing hip-hop to what they learned from electronic post-disco R&B pioneered by Leon Sylvers III, Kashif, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Like much of what precedes it, the song is a blast. Those who want their rich and modern synthesizer funk minus flash would do well to seek Bugz in the Attic's "Consequences," Dam-Funk's "Galactic Fun," Amalia's "Welcome to Me," and Anderson Paak's "Am I Wrong," for starters. ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2023
Label:	Atlantic
UPC:	0075678626340

Tracks

1. 24K Magic
2. Chunky
3. Perm
4. That's What I Like
5. Versace on the Floor
6. Straight Up & Down
7. Calling All My Lovelies
8. Finesse
9. Too Good to Say Goodbye

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bruno Mars   Primary Artist,Vocals,Talk Box,Vocals (Background)
Greg Phillinganes   Keyboards
Homer Steinweiss   Drums
Kenneth Edmonds   Vocals (Background)
Bryon "Mr. Talkbox" Chambers   Talk Box
James Fauntleroy   Vocals (Background)
Christopher "Brody" Brown   Vocals (Background)
Philip Lawrence   Vocals (Background)
Eric Hernandez   Drums
Christopher Brown   Vocals (Background)
Kameron Whalum   Horn
Ken Lewis   Horn
Brody Brown   Vocals (Background)
Dwayne Dugger   Horn
Jimmy King   Horn
David Foreman   Guitar

Technical Credits

Serban Ghenea   Mixing
The Stereotypes   Producer,Drum Programming
Carl Martin   Composer
John Hanes   Mixing,Mixing Engineer,Mixing Assistant
Jeff Bhasker   Composer
Homer Steinweiss   Composer
Kenneth Edmonds   Composer
James Fauntleroy   Composer
Bruno Mars   Artwork,Composer
Tom Coyne   Mastering
Jonathan Yip   Composer
Ray Romulus   Composer
Jeremy Reeves   Composer
Philip Lawrence   Composer
Charles Moniz   Engineer,Recording
Erica Bellarosa   Music Business Affairs
Kai Z Feng   Photography
Marc Gay   Composer
Craig Rosen   A&R
Christopher Brown   Composer
Greg Gigendad Burke   Artwork
Ken Lewis   Recording,Additional Music
Emile Haynie   Composer,Producer
Faheem Najm   Composer
Brody Brown   Composer
Trevor Lawrence Jr.   Composer
Jacob Dennis   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Ray Charles McCullough II   Composer
Shampoo Press & Curl   Producer,Executive,Executive Producer
Shmuel Dolla $Ign   Project Manager
Jack Dennis   Engineer