There\u2019s something endearing, optimistic and unexplainably cool about funk. It never gets old, no matter how many years have gone by since its heyday. And almost any time a modern artist brings back funk and its cousin disco, the results are praised; witness Daft Punk\u2019s sweeping success with Random Access Memories <\/i>in 2013, for example.<\/p>\n
Producer Mark Ronson is affectionate toward this era, and with the money and connections to do something about it, decided to pull together Uptown Funk<\/i>. The ingredients include stalwart session players, superstars Bruno Mars and Stevie Wonder, lyrics from author Michael Chambon, \u201870s-flavored beats and authentic production the way they used to do it. Put in a blender, the 40-minute album is both nostalgic and modern\u2026presumably, the way Ronson feels music should be.<\/p>\n
The presence of \u201cuptown\u201d in the title, Ronson\u2019s love of Steely Dan and Songs In The Key Of Life<\/i> and the man\u2019s skill as a producer lend this an air of sophistication; it\u2019s too classy for greasy funk, but it\u2019s not Yacht Rock for the Refined Snot, either (which may be a good name for a compilation\u2026someone alert K-Tel). \u201cSummer Breaking\u201d is a breezy smooth jazz-inflected piece influenced by both Steely Dan and Seals & Crofts, sung lightly by Kevin Parker (of Tame Impala) and floating by on a cloud.<\/p>\n
It gives way to the first hit off the album, the chunky funk of \u201cFeel Right,\u201d which features a great rap from Mystikal and a fine chorus, which is unfortunately dragged down by the repeated heavy cursing (the MF word, over and over). Better is the global hit \u201cUptown Funk,\u201d wherein Bruno Mars stops by and offers up a snappy number with the emphasis on the bass groove and the between-word blasts of brass. These two songs are the only ones where Chambon, (a Pulitzer-winning author) did not contribute vocals, and it shows, as lines about \u201cuptown funk you up\u201d and shitting fire are not generally associated with the Pulitzer committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Can\u2019t Lose\u201d is knotty funk that features newcomer Keyone Starr in full-on \u201880s funk diva mode, while \u201cDaffodils\u201d is a sort-of sequel to \u201cSummer Breaking,\u201d except with Parker\u2019s falsetto broken up by a distorted squall of a guitar solo and a psychedelic midsection that contrasts with the bottom-end bass groove; there\u2019s more going on than meets the eye, and it rewards repeated listens.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrack In The Pearl\u201d is so much a Stevie Wonder song that the man himself should have received a credit; instead, he offers a brief harmonica solo on the opening \u201cUptown\u2019s First Finale\u201d and closing \u201cCrack In The Pearl Pt. 2,\u201d which seems like a waste of his talents. \u201cIn Case Of Fire\u201d is a little disjointed to cohere but paints a picture with words: \u201cBad girl, good moves \/ Big dreams, but little fuse \/ You start fires that you can’t put out \/ Just watch it burn \/ A lifetime of heartbreak and outta cigarettes \/ A melancholy equation \/ Street summer memories, of the day we met \/ Could change the radio station.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLeaving Los Feliz\u201d is Parker\u2019s third appearance, weaving a tale of someone realizing he is too old for the club scene (perhaps a surrogate for Ronson\u2019s feelings; the producer is almost 40) but musically falling a bit short. Same goes for the glossy \u201cHeavy And Rolling,\u201d which is neither, but hardly a misstep in the context of the disc.<\/p>\n
Trying to slap a genre or even a year on this is difficult, which is exactly what Ronson was going for. True, Uptown Special <\/i>pays homage (sometimes overtly) to Ronson\u2019s musical heroes, evoking an era and offering what some would consider nostalgia. But where the album succeeds is how Ronson explores different genres, mixing psychedelia, funk, R&B and light rock in ways one wouldn\u2019t expect, in ways that only could be dreamed up by someone with 20 years in the business and a wall full of vinyl. It\u2019s a varied, thoughtful and foot-tapping album, if a bit professional and calculated in spots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9587],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44038","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mark-ronson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44038"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44038"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}