Artist: Bruno Mars

Album: Unorthodox Jukebox

Album Level: Sophomore Album

Genre: Pop, R&B

Record Label: Atlantic

Release Date: December 11, 2012

Review

Unorthodox Jukebox attempts to break the image that Bruno Mars initially created. From songs like “Gorilla” to “Money Maker Her Smile”, he has released his bad-boy side. I mean come on, I would never think Mars would come out with a song that has lyrics like “we’re f*cking like gorillas.”

The problem is that it doesn’t really work out too well for him. It sounds like he’s trying too hard to get away from his good-hearted nature. Even as I listen to “Gorilla” I still think of him as the guy I would take home and have a nice, pleasant meal with, with family.

My top three songs would have to be “Moonshine”, “Locked Out of Heaven”, and “Treasure.” They seem to be the only songs that kind of work with his voice. Throughout this album it’s like he’s paying homage to other artists. If you listen and are familiar with the artists,  you’ll notice that he does a pretty good Sting on “Locked Out of Heaven” and an impressive MJ on “Natalie.” There are a couple of others in there that I wouldn’t get into.

This album is nice, but not great. Bruno Mars is talented. There is no denying that. He has a very soulful voice that takes me back to when Jazz was really big. The problem I found with this album is that he paired his very soulful voice with very pop-ish music and it’s kind of all over the place. It didn’t mesh very well to me. I’m not saying it isn’t a decent album. It is, but at times I felt like he should have stuck with one style or at least go more of the mellow routine and don’t try to be this bad guy.

I will applaud Bruno for his use of live instruments for this album. Not many artist do that nowadays. It’s kind of sad. But I find that he’s still searching for his own identity. He definitely has talent but this album just doesn’t ‘Wow’ me.

Rating: 7/10

What did you thing?