![]() ![]() 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. 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. Almost all of the material involves Mars in winking bad-boy player mode. 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. 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. ![]() 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. 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. 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. ![]()
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