Get the latest gossip
Bruno Mars Found a Way to Get Even Bigger
The singer’s counterintuitive approach paid off.
His four-quadrant, feel-good R&B hits — among them “Just the Way You Are,” “Uptown Funk!”, “That’s What I Like,” and Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” — are like nice watches: always reliable, stylish yet classic. On “Smile” and “APT.,” we hear less of him than ever.Rather than putting Mars in the spotlight with his tried-and-true throwback formula, these songs take the lead of their collaborators: “Smile” is a vintage rock ballad recalling Gaga’s late 2010s work on Joanne and A Star Is Born, while “APT.” is a K-pop track interpolating Toni Basil’s “Mickey.” A funk-inflected rap song like Mars’s latest single, “Fat Juicy & Wet,” is more well-trod territory for him, but even there, Sexyy Red is the raunchy ringleader. He got his start in the production group the Smeezingtons, working with Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine to shepherd hits by Flo Rida and Cee Lo Green.
Or read this on VULTURE