Music Reviews

I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet, kind of like the album itself. Silk Sonic is a Soul R&B duo consisting of two members rapper and singer Anderson .Paak and the hit maker Bruno Mars – sounds like a match made in heaven, right? Well they definetly didn’t dissapoint in that regard – their chemistry on this record is out of this world and they both play off of each other super well. Anderson’s more rough emotionally-packed voice compliments the sweet angelic voice of Bruno Mars impeccably.

Now this record isn’t flawless, it stills has a few issues holding it back from being that sweet sweet 10/10 I was pulling for this to be, the main reason definetly being it’s length. I understand that there is only so much you can do within this specific blend of genres for a long period of time, but 9 tracks clocking in at 33 minutes just isn’t enough – they never really get super adventerous on this record, it’s all played very safe within a certain formula – the formula works, but I just wished they branched out a little, that’s all. Anyways, there still is some variety to be found here, especially on tracks like „Fly As Me“ which has got to be one of the nastiest, grooviest most slickest piece of music I’ve heard all year (Silk Sonic more like SLICK Sonic… Yeah, that definetly hasn’t been done before) and „Put On A Smile“, which surely is the emotional highpoint of the record. The other issue with this album, and that is mostly just a minor personal nit-pick that I have, so don’t worry, is that the album doesn’t seem to follow any concept whatsoever – sure you could make the argument that there actualy IS a narrative hidden in this album, but even so, that clearly wasn’t an intentional artistic choice – you could call this a concept album, if the concept was partying and making some good-ass music to go along side with it.

That’s actually about all I have to say for the „negatives“ I feel towards this album – now let’s dive a little more deeper into the good stuff and oh boy, is there a lot of that – the rest of this review is basically going to be me just simping over Anderson and Bruno on this record. The album opens with the short introduction „Silk Sonic Intro“, which sums up the album’s musical pallete and gives the listener a pretty good idea of what they’re going into – however the next song and the main single of this album „Leave The Door Open“ completely throws that out the window (don’t say it, don’t say it…), sounding like typical Bruno Mars R&B production with just the right ammount of soul – both artist steal the show here, a prime example of their chemistry on this album, it’s really just on full display here. The next song is the previously mentioned „Fly As Me“ and this one’s special, because Anderson RAPS on this one. That’s right, if I’m not mistaken, which I sure as hell might be, I think this is the only instance of that occuring on this whole record and Anderson really doesn’t hold back because of that. Easily one of the best songs on the whole album and keep in mind, the whole album slaps, so that’s saying a lot. The next song „After Last Night“ also has Thundercat and Bootsy Collins on it, so of course it’s great, what did you expect me to say. Actually I’m just gonna leave (don’t say it, DO NOT SAY IT) it with that, I think everyone who knows Thundercat’s production style knows that the dude doesn’t miss and this is no exception. Now we arrive at my personal favorite song on the album – „Smoking Out The Window“ and there are many reasons as to why that is indeed my favortie song. First and foremost it’s in my opinnion the most layered song on here with such a complex yet catchy chorus and it all manages to feel so natural, I’m really impressed by the song-writing on this one. Second of all, the performances themselves are also one of the more heartfelt and emotinally-packed if you ask me – Anderson is really the star of the show here. And last but not least, it’s just so much fun – I can’t help but to put on a smile (DON’T) everytime I hear it. SPEAKING OF PUTTING ON A SMILE (oh god…), the next song is, you guessed it, „Put On A Smile“ and this one despite what the title implies takes my smile away and replaces it with pure unfiltered sadness. This is the so called „hidden gem“ of the record for me – Bruno’s lyricism is surprisingly tight, like everytime he says „tryna fight these tears from cryin‘, but Lord know I’m dyin“, I FEEL that. Also just the way he says it, it’s just an overall emotional gut-punch and I love it. The song „777“ kicks off the final third of the record and it’s a great song, don’t get me wrong, but the problems with this album starts to become a bit apparent by this point, it’s not different enough to be supper intresting and it’s kind of just more of the same – NOW BEFORE YOU GO AND TRY TO CRUCIFY ME I still think it’s good, but by this point in the album, I would welcome a bit of a pace-change. Still a good song nonethenless. And I hate to admit it, but basically the same goes for the next song „Skate“, except this one looses me honestly even more (which is still a joke to say, like the quality difference between the songs on this album is I think strictly a matter of just subjective preference of each individual listener). The existenc of the closer „Blast Off“ is really only to fulfill the purpose of closing off an album, as I feel the song on it’s own is significantly less impactful then in the context of the album. It does it’s job fairly well and honestly, at the end of the day, you still feel like you got the whole expirience by the end of it and that’s what really matters.

So uh, so much for short and sweet, huh? Yeah it’s hard not to get passionate about something that these two make, like leave some talent for us dudes – all jokes aside, this album is stellar. Definetly give it a listen if you haven’t, I don’t think there is a single human being on this album that doesn’t enjoy this record at least to some degree (so yes, if you in fact dislike this album, I’m calling you a non-human).

Light 9/10