Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox

When presented with the It's Better If You Don't Understand EP back in 2010, I was excited. A small selection of four very good songs, displaying a range of potential hits and sounds, it at least presented Mars as a viable candidate for the next big thing, and on its merit, a welcome and rare example of a current phenomenon being talented. I guess it was inevitable that by the time his first LP - Doo-Wops and Hooligans - was produced, a lot of the Motown, soul and exciting edges had been polished and rejected in favour of cheesy, diabolical lovepop. Don't get me wrong, Just the Way You Are was a wonderful love song, and even 'Marry You' was good for the occasional YouTube proposal, but with the intolerable Grenade being unavoidable for a few months at the very start of 2011, and then immediately followed by the tedious, monotonous The Lazy Song, I grew very tired of Mars very fast.

As is with much pop music, time can heal wounds and be very forgiving (just look at Lady GaGa; I'm sure everyone's forgotten how awful Born this Way [the song] is). A month or two ago now, Mars returned with a brand new style, and a song a little more than derivative of The Police. If Unorthodox Jukebox's mission is to represent Bruno Mars as a lover of music and not just the latest industry pawn, it pretty resoundingly succeeds.

Initially offering more of the same - 'Young Girls' is a series of Motown drums and mismatched strings backing a quite generic ballad that's quite the boring appetizer when followed by the funky, fun 'Locked Out of Heaven'. Mars tries to veer his vocal style as far away from Sting's (to avoid lawsuits, probably) and as such becomes a bit warbly and lounge. Altogether it's a brave move from Mars, as lead single, but is varnished with enough vocal hooks - most likely producer Mark Ronson's doing - to make it work. The penchant for 1980s background synths and heavy guitar riffs continue into 'Gorilla', which pulls off the "oooooh!" hooks to fait accomplis, making altogether sound a bit Yoü and I. A generous helping of funk is splashed on 'Treasure', and I'm almost certain I can hear Sam Sparro in the background somewhere.

By 'Moonshine' you're already covered in so much eighties nostalgia that you're half-expecting the cast of The Perks of Being a Wallflower to pop up and do a moody dance and burn some polaroids. Luckily, the aesthetics chosen by Mars and Ronson are catchy and endearing enough to endure, and it's altogether a serene listening experience. He stumbles a little on 'When I Was Your Man', a plodding piano breakup ballad that naturally was selected to be the album's second single. "I should have bought you flowers and held your hand, shoulda give you all my hours when I had the chance" the chorus whines, before building up to the inevitable rhyme, and the whole track just personally bores me. Adele co-conspirator Paul Epworth dabbles once in the album on 'Natalie', and his style is immediately heard; all clapping drums and unrelenting vocal fireworks over a string backdrop. In a way it's almost stereotypical, but it packs enough energy and showmanship to make it worthwhile.

Just to confirm the album's status as a mishmash of styles and genres, a touch of reggae is dropped into the infectious and faultless 'Show Me', a bit of an homage to sex and all that. The samples and basslines played with on 'Money Make Her Smile', along with the song's storytelling feel, again strikes an success for Mars, but ultimately it's the closer - the soporific soul throwback 'If I Knew' - that reveals Mars to be a cheesy romantic at heart.

The end feeling about this follow-up album is a reassuring one for me: Bruno Mars has probably more than crossed the line into mainstream puppetry by now, but this shows a passion for music and life that few corporate popstars are willing to. The tunes are enjoyable and the thematics a little shallow, ruling this out as a contender for brilliance, but it emerges quite confidently from the pool of mediocrity.

Rating: 7/10
Highlights: Locked Out of Heaven, Treasure, Show Me, Moonshine, Natalie
Avoid: When I Was Your Man, If I Knew, Young Girls

Artwork Watch: One of my housemates once made a joke about Mars' video for The Lazy Song containing monkeys that just made me super-aware of potential racism. I'll leave this well alone.
Up next: Ke$ha