Hi, everyone. Romantic Guy here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I'm still feeling quite under the weather, but we're still doing a review of the new Bruno Mars album, The Romantic.

Yes, Bruno Mars, one of pop music's darling boys. Well, men, he's a full-grown man. So full-grown that it has been about 10 whole years since this guy dropped a solo full-length album.

24K Magic was obviously his last full-length LP, really my favorite album in his discography so far, a record that was not only super catchy and well-written, but I think a smart move on Bruno's part, given that his collaboration with Mark Ronson, "Uptown Funk", did so well for him, and that he noticed, due to that single popping off in the way that it did, that there was potentially this broader itch to be scratched by him with these fusions of pop and funk and synth funk that he took so well to on that very brief but very enjoyable album.

With The Romantic over here, I feel like Bruno is entering this project having had takeaways from another recent crossover. Of course, the album that Bruno did not too long ago with none other than Anderson .Paak, the Silk Sonic record, where both of them, back in 2021, for 10 tracks or so, decided to treat us to a series of throwback funk and soul numbers with big '70s vibes, a lot of passion, and frankly, just one-of-a-kind chemistry between Anderson and Bruno. They contrast and complement each other in so many nice ways. One is fire, one is ice, one is salt, one is sugar, one is night, one is day.

Now, ever since that record came out and did as well as it did, a lot of fans been wondering, will there ever be another Silk Sonic project again? Will Anderson and Bruno revisit this time period of music and churn out more hits?

I think for Bruno, at least, the answer is 'yes' for The Romantic, because he is very much traveling back to a similar time of pop and soul music in the '60s and '70s, with touchstones like Al Green, the Isleys, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, a little War as well, with a few tracks here and there that touch down on some Latin vibes occasionally, especially the first two songs. The opening track actually feels like I'm listening to a Latin spin on Frank Sinatra's "My Way", interestingly, at least from the melodies and cords, but I digress.

And look, Bruno pretty much forecasted the direction this album was going to go in, of course, with the "I Just Might" single. That very specific combination of soul and disco and funk. There was no way that track was going to be a singular stand-alone moment on an entire record Bruno because, yeah, the nine tracks on The Romantic pretty much culminate in a pastiche of vibes from this era. Sounds that a hardcore soul fan might feel maybe don't quite match up in all places because, again, you are talking about pieces of Philly soul and Chicago soul, pop soul, and smooth soul, all brought together into the most accessible and easy to digest presentation possible. Plus, a lot of the time, it does feel like Bruno is operating off of a lot of borrowed swagger and smoothness from the key artists of the time period these sounds come from.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, even though Bruno is checking the major boxes I think an artist should when trying to come together with new songs that pay homage to these classic and influential styles, I do think something is missing in the finer details, hearing Bruno approach these sounds and vibes once again. But without Anderson .Paak in tow, there is almost a deafening silence that cannot be ignored while listening to this album. Because while I do think Bruno's melodicism and smooth, pretty boy demeanor definitely shines through on The Romantic, the grit and wild boy energy and sense of randomness and fun and stank that Anderson typically brings to track, I found myself often missing that on pretty much all of these songs outside of maybe a few.

Plus, with Bruno playing it as safe as he typically does in his music on this record, there are maybe some intense moments and imperfections that would typically land on some of these classic albums that just don't end up in this ultra-sanitized iteration that Bruno is trying to present us here.

Because of that, we end up with numerous tracks that are just mind-numbingly silly on the lyrical side, like "Cha Cha Cha", or are just ultra-commercial, like in the case of "I Just Might". As much as I enjoy the real meat and bones of that song once we've moved past its intro, I can't really deny that the fuzzy guitars and background vocals sound like something straight out of a Target ad.

Now, there are at least a couple of tracks on the album where I think Bruno really nails it on the songwriting side with some great vocals, a passionate presentation, and some decent lyrics, too, like "God Was Showing Off". I'm also enjoying the big Romeo energy on "Why You Wanna Fight?", too. But it doesn't take too long for me to be snap back reality with a track like "On My Soul". Which, despite it having all the glamor and layers that you would want out of a track in this style, it sees Bruno and his collaborators playing it as bite-sized as possible on the structure and length end, which isn't the point of making music like this to go the distance and show off what a group recording like this could truly pull off in the studio, rather than stripping this stuff down to its most bare and basic elements to eke out a hit and a chart topper.

I also think the grooves and instrumentation on "Something Serious", a border on parody of the era and the influences that it's trying to borrow from. Then the final moments on the album from here are really nothing to write home about, because Bruno has pretty much given us the most bare minimum tracklist he possibly could. He's really trying to get in and get out after having made nods towards some of the most obvious ideas and touchstones that one possibly could by just giving a really quick glance at soul music as a concept, as a vibe, which makes this more of a soul vibe check than a proper soul album.

The closing track on the record is giving some early James Brown vibes, very much like a prom-type ballad, or more likely this is going to be played at many weddings across America for the coming year. So yeah, a wedding song number. But one of many moments on this record that honestly, as palatable as it is, the only feeling I'm really left with while listening to many of the tracks on this album is not a love for the material itself, but a desire to go and listen to the artist instead that Bruno is obviously making reference to here.

Because as talented as Bruno clearly is, he doesn't put enough effort into these sounds and these songs to make them appealing in and of themselves. It's not anything I could see myself listening to over the many classic soul albums of the '60s and '70s, which is very much not the case for numerous tracks off of Silk Sonic. There is a unique chemistry between Anderson and Bruno that draws me to that record, specifically, even if in my mind, that album is a little scant and imperfect. But yeah, there's not really anything on The Romantic that would make me prefer it over the artists and albums it's clearly taking from.

The most disappointing thing about this album is: I really do think Bruno had the capacity to create an album that actually did that, but he, in fact, did not go that far with these songs and essentially gave us a bunch of pop soul numbers that are about as bland and as predictable as the production and instrumentation from the "Die With A Smile" collab he did with Lady Gaga not too long ago.

Very so-so album here from Bruno, unfortunately, not nearly as fun as 24K Magic or Silk Sonic, for that matter. And while I think there are a handful of decent tracks on this album that are fine on their own, as a body of work, The Romantic is just very unadventurous and just very predictable. And the more I listen to it, the more it just has me dying to hear something else, just listen to something else. Because I know the music on this record can be done better, but Bruno and his collaborators are just not pushing it far enough, which is why I'm feeling about a light 5 on this record.

Anthony Fantano, Bruno Mars. Forever.