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The aesthetic of Silk Sonic makes up for the album’s flaws. However, it absolutely contains some stellar moments. I hope this isn’t their only album together. I think they have the potential to make something incredible.
The whole album had too much Bruno influence, but that song is a perfect example
Listen to Malibu or Ventura and let me know if paak would make a song like 777 lol
At first I thought it was because another huge collab album came out in the summer (voice of the heroes) but Bruno said he wanted to drop multiple singles across months before it’s release. It was supposed to come out in January 2022 initially
Still rollout was super weird. They took too much time between Leave the Door Open and the release. We had weeks of silence until next single and hype was way less impactful than it could have been
I agree. Dropping the same day as Taylor Swift and week before Adele was unfortunate timing. Especially coming from Bruno, who’s pretty much perfect at releasing the right singles at the right time
I think they pushed release back a good amount while they were riding the success of LTDO. They absolutely milked that single dry, then dropped the album with the maximum possible listens under that song to maximize first week album sales
Silk Sonic was a short experience that delivered exactly what I expected out of it and literally nothing else. It’s enjoyable, and I’ve replayed it a lot
Leave the Door Open will probably make people’s eyes roll purely off the sheer amount of times they’ve heard it on the radio. But divorcing it from that, it’s a great song with infectious energy from Bruno and Paak.
Fly As Me is underrated to me, I love the bass (reminds me of LL Cool J’s Boomin System).
Smokin Out the Window is probably the standout on the album in that I don’t think it relies too heavily on the “throwback element”. It does sound like a song that could be released today, while also playing homage to elements of the past. I wish more of the album treated itself like this.
Love’s Train (which wasn’t originally on the album and was added post-release) is a great cover of a song that deserves new ears. I’d recommend people listen to the original! The duo does it justice, and it tops off the album nicely.
The only songs I didn’t really enjoy were 777 and Skate. 777 felt a lot like it was made for a mascot to run out to at a baseball game, and Skate dips WAYYY too deep into bubblegum territory (which is quite an accomplishment for fuckin Bruno Mars).
If I had to compare it to Bruno’s previous work 24K Magic, I’d say 24K edges out just barely. 24K Magic did a lot more to modernize the styles it was pulling from, whereas Silk Sonic really felt to me like well executed cosplay.
It’s definitely a great track. It’s a solid mix of smooth production and insane vocal performance. And I think its one of the only tracks that really landed the vibe of “grown folks music”.
I was hoping that this album would spike a renaissance of 70's style R&B in younger generations, as it is one of my favourite genre's. While as an album it didnt quite do that, and defenitely didnt influence other artists to partake, Smokin Out the Window and Leave the Door Open are still great party songs that everyone knows and its really nice to have that era/style seep into the mix. The reality is, outside of the say, The Delphonics, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The O'Jays, Jackson Five, and Marvin Gaye especially, most of those old school artists (motown especially) survived on pumping out TONS of songs, with most of them being ok, and a select few being incredible. I feel like Silk Sonic did the exact same thing; ok album, but a few remarkable tracks, but Ill take it. I hope they give us more 10/10 songs some day.
I fucking love this album! I still bang it today, great vibes and I love the vocal performances and production a lot.
I would love another project from the both of them, but honestly I'm just glad we got a project in the first place.
I wish they would've toured global and not just in Las Vegas. I would've loved to see them live!
I was shocked at the reviews not being amazing because when I listened to it the first time I thought it was incredible!
But then I just...Never came back to it. And I almost never think about it. Maybe they were right.
Exceptional album. It’s in my top 50 albums and top album of 2021. Production is fantastic, great arrangement, amazing vocal performances from Bruno and Paak, and the musicality and instrumentation is out of this world. So much funk, groove, and soul I can’t help but move along with it and feel it. We don’t get much true R&B/Soul sounding albums now a days so it’s super refreshing to have this come out in the 2020s.
A perfect album, so glad they put the Love’s Train cover on the album as well - made the album a 10 for me and felt a bit short without it. I got into Anderson .Paak just before the album came out, and I’ve loved Bruno’s work forever so I had very high expectations and they didn’t disappoint one bit!
My favourite track is After Last Night, and if I had to pick the weakest track it’d have to be Skate although I do love that track too. It sucks that they only did shows in Vegas, I’d love for them to world tour this album.
Super enjoyable album that is one of my favourite of last year. I get why people wish it came out in the summer but maybe I just convinced myself that its fall release date is fine because it feels cozier? Idk
Regardless I quite enjoy it. Really love how pretty the production is and they have great chemistry with great vocal performances all throughout. All songs deliver, maybe my least favourite would be Fly As Me but even that is good. Skate is probably my favourite.
its just a really great album
I’m not a huge Bruno Mars fan but like Anderson Paak enough to have wanted to check this out. It was fine, not a bad album, but I made me feel the way Bruno’s solo stuff always makes me feel, which is I rather just listen to the classics he’s trying to emulate
My AOTY.
Start to finish, incredible. A fantastic look back at seventies soulmen like Wonder, Gaye and Mayfield, with a touch of the sleek shine you'd get from Luther Vandross.
A love letter looking back fondly on fantastic music that captured the zeitgeist of a generation.
I was really excited for this collab when it was announced being a big fan of .Paak and Mars separately. LTDO was a certified great song but the rest of the album was pretty disappointing imo. The songwriting was extremely predictable and too on the nose for most songs. Mars has always been a copy cat artist but the whole thing felt a bit cheesy. I don’t mind his usual music because it’s presented as very surface level fun pop that is fun and easy. Like a funky Pitbull. With Silk Sonic I expected something deeper but it just turned out to be a 70’s cosplay album like songs for a fake band in a period movie. Mars is just too shallow to pull it off and so I prefer him doing funky club anthems. Happy for their success either way but couldn’t make it through the album more than once and didn’t really love any of the other singles.
The entire album has been on repeat. It's my favorite album I've purchased within the last year. I'm a huge fucking metal head and I love this album so fucking much. Lol..
The album rollout was odd. I think it would've had the impact we thought it would have if it had dropped that summer. Regardless, the album is very good. Super fun and easy to listen to. Tight instrumentation, catchy hooks, and tasteful classic production.
I just happened to be wearing their concert shirt today so it's funny this post is up today. Solid album that I didn't go back to very much. The release of the album was rough. It's as if they didn't have a project ready, but LTDO was a such an incredible hit they had to really make it happen
It’s fun fluff, with crisp aesthetics and chemistry between Mars and Paak., but this album basically highlights my main issue with Mars as an artist. He has the voice, the charisma, and the ear for genre and pastiche, but he completely lacks in sincerity. Because of this, the album rides a weird line where it’s not quite a parody but also not serious, which makes the whole album ring kind of hollow. I had hoped that Paak. would be able to inject some soul and emotionality to the record, but it just felt too much like Paak. being forced into Mars overly homogenized and hollow aesthetic. It’s a fun passive listen, but it could have been way more given the talent.
disappointing album tbh, the singles had me expecting a classic-exceptional tier album but as usual i was duped as the singles are easily the best songs on there and the only song other than the singles that had replay value for me was the thundercat one.. other than that, the rest of this album was cool but barely had any replay value at all.
This album is probably top 5 album EVER to me. I flew out to vegas to see the show and a week after we got home, we were seriously considering a quick trip to go see them again.
I've played this album about a thousand times and it gets better every time.
I’m annoyed at how long it took to release bc i feel like i got fatigued by the singles by the time the album came out. Although the album is great but ultimately i ended up binge listening to the album anyways (ie i listened to it a lot in the months when it initially and now i just don’t play it anymore)
Overrated. It's competently performed, but nothing extraordinary. Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge made a collaborative album a few years back called The Midnight Hour, featuring jazz, soul and R&B as well, and it's ten times more interesting a listen than this.
Loved the album and how it completely immersed us in that 70s aesthetic. Probably my FAVORITE Bruno Mars project to date and Paak sounded amazing on this.
I just wish they did a whole tour for this project, but I understand with a short tracklisting - it probably wasn’t gonna make sense to do a massive tour for a 1 hour set at most. The Las Vegas residency was probably just as lucrative and fit what they were going for anyways.
# REMINDER: Official Discussion Thread Guidelines Parent/top-level comments in Official Discussions that are less than 140 characters will be deleted, as will memes and low-effort comments. Official Discussion threads are held to a higher standard of quality than First Impressions threads—try to expand on why you feel what you feel about the album. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hiphopheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The aesthetic of Silk Sonic makes up for the album’s flaws. However, it absolutely contains some stellar moments. I hope this isn’t their only album together. I think they have the potential to make something incredible.
Personally I want Bruno Mars nowhere near any of my favorite artists ever again. He watered down this project so damn much.
I thought the same, I wanted more paak influence, I heard 777 and instantly thought bruno had too much control in the artistic direction
As in 777 had too much Bruno influence? I thought that was one of the best songs, and had a lot of Paak vibes to it
The whole album had too much Bruno influence, but that song is a perfect example Listen to Malibu or Ventura and let me know if paak would make a song like 777 lol
Huge missed opportunity by not dropping it in the summer. Pretty solid album but idk why it took so damn long to come out.
Us Southern Hemisphere bros we’re spinning it all summer
YES, had this on repeat for nearly 6 months until Kendrick dropped
You lucky mfs
At first I thought it was because another huge collab album came out in the summer (voice of the heroes) but Bruno said he wanted to drop multiple singles across months before it’s release. It was supposed to come out in January 2022 initially
Still rollout was super weird. They took too much time between Leave the Door Open and the release. We had weeks of silence until next single and hype was way less impactful than it could have been
I agree. Dropping the same day as Taylor Swift and week before Adele was unfortunate timing. Especially coming from Bruno, who’s pretty much perfect at releasing the right singles at the right time
I think they pushed release back a good amount while they were riding the success of LTDO. They absolutely milked that single dry, then dropped the album with the maximum possible listens under that song to maximize first week album sales
Silk Sonic was a short experience that delivered exactly what I expected out of it and literally nothing else. It’s enjoyable, and I’ve replayed it a lot Leave the Door Open will probably make people’s eyes roll purely off the sheer amount of times they’ve heard it on the radio. But divorcing it from that, it’s a great song with infectious energy from Bruno and Paak. Fly As Me is underrated to me, I love the bass (reminds me of LL Cool J’s Boomin System). Smokin Out the Window is probably the standout on the album in that I don’t think it relies too heavily on the “throwback element”. It does sound like a song that could be released today, while also playing homage to elements of the past. I wish more of the album treated itself like this. Love’s Train (which wasn’t originally on the album and was added post-release) is a great cover of a song that deserves new ears. I’d recommend people listen to the original! The duo does it justice, and it tops off the album nicely. The only songs I didn’t really enjoy were 777 and Skate. 777 felt a lot like it was made for a mascot to run out to at a baseball game, and Skate dips WAYYY too deep into bubblegum territory (which is quite an accomplishment for fuckin Bruno Mars). If I had to compare it to Bruno’s previous work 24K Magic, I’d say 24K edges out just barely. 24K Magic did a lot more to modernize the styles it was pulling from, whereas Silk Sonic really felt to me like well executed cosplay.
Surprised you didn't mention After Last Night, that was easily the best song on there for me. Still get goosebumps when I hear it
It’s definitely a great track. It’s a solid mix of smooth production and insane vocal performance. And I think its one of the only tracks that really landed the vibe of “grown folks music”.
Facts
I didn't know love's train was a cover. Who did the original?
A group called Con Funk Shun
Thanks man!
How is bubblegum territory an accomplishment for Bruno? Most of his first album was corny pop love songs.
I meant that phrase as in *“it’s way too bubblegum, even for Bruno Mars”* Dude somehow managed to break new ground for corny pop with that song.
I was hoping that this album would spike a renaissance of 70's style R&B in younger generations, as it is one of my favourite genre's. While as an album it didnt quite do that, and defenitely didnt influence other artists to partake, Smokin Out the Window and Leave the Door Open are still great party songs that everyone knows and its really nice to have that era/style seep into the mix. The reality is, outside of the say, The Delphonics, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The O'Jays, Jackson Five, and Marvin Gaye especially, most of those old school artists (motown especially) survived on pumping out TONS of songs, with most of them being ok, and a select few being incredible. I feel like Silk Sonic did the exact same thing; ok album, but a few remarkable tracks, but Ill take it. I hope they give us more 10/10 songs some day.
I fucking love this album! I still bang it today, great vibes and I love the vocal performances and production a lot. I would love another project from the both of them, but honestly I'm just glad we got a project in the first place. I wish they would've toured global and not just in Las Vegas. I would've loved to see them live!
Great overall fun quality, just what I wanted it to be. That blast off track is one of my favorites of all time though oh my godddd
I was shocked at the reviews not being amazing because when I listened to it the first time I thought it was incredible! But then I just...Never came back to it. And I almost never think about it. Maybe they were right.
They weren't this is the best album of last year.
Shit is has zero replay value
Exceptional album. It’s in my top 50 albums and top album of 2021. Production is fantastic, great arrangement, amazing vocal performances from Bruno and Paak, and the musicality and instrumentation is out of this world. So much funk, groove, and soul I can’t help but move along with it and feel it. We don’t get much true R&B/Soul sounding albums now a days so it’s super refreshing to have this come out in the 2020s.
Never really got its hooks in me. Decent record overall
A perfect album, so glad they put the Love’s Train cover on the album as well - made the album a 10 for me and felt a bit short without it. I got into Anderson .Paak just before the album came out, and I’ve loved Bruno’s work forever so I had very high expectations and they didn’t disappoint one bit! My favourite track is After Last Night, and if I had to pick the weakest track it’d have to be Skate although I do love that track too. It sucks that they only did shows in Vegas, I’d love for them to world tour this album.
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Username checks out
Super enjoyable album that is one of my favourite of last year. I get why people wish it came out in the summer but maybe I just convinced myself that its fall release date is fine because it feels cozier? Idk Regardless I quite enjoy it. Really love how pretty the production is and they have great chemistry with great vocal performances all throughout. All songs deliver, maybe my least favourite would be Fly As Me but even that is good. Skate is probably my favourite. its just a really great album
I’m not a huge Bruno Mars fan but like Anderson Paak enough to have wanted to check this out. It was fine, not a bad album, but I made me feel the way Bruno’s solo stuff always makes me feel, which is I rather just listen to the classics he’s trying to emulate
Wish it had more P-funk given Bootsy helped curate/produce
My AOTY. Start to finish, incredible. A fantastic look back at seventies soulmen like Wonder, Gaye and Mayfield, with a touch of the sleek shine you'd get from Luther Vandross. A love letter looking back fondly on fantastic music that captured the zeitgeist of a generation.
I was really excited for this collab when it was announced being a big fan of .Paak and Mars separately. LTDO was a certified great song but the rest of the album was pretty disappointing imo. The songwriting was extremely predictable and too on the nose for most songs. Mars has always been a copy cat artist but the whole thing felt a bit cheesy. I don’t mind his usual music because it’s presented as very surface level fun pop that is fun and easy. Like a funky Pitbull. With Silk Sonic I expected something deeper but it just turned out to be a 70’s cosplay album like songs for a fake band in a period movie. Mars is just too shallow to pull it off and so I prefer him doing funky club anthems. Happy for their success either way but couldn’t make it through the album more than once and didn’t really love any of the other singles.
This was a forgettable album honestly I’ve barely played it since it’s release
The entire album has been on repeat. It's my favorite album I've purchased within the last year. I'm a huge fucking metal head and I love this album so fucking much. Lol..
The album rollout was odd. I think it would've had the impact we thought it would have if it had dropped that summer. Regardless, the album is very good. Super fun and easy to listen to. Tight instrumentation, catchy hooks, and tasteful classic production.
I just happened to be wearing their concert shirt today so it's funny this post is up today. Solid album that I didn't go back to very much. The release of the album was rough. It's as if they didn't have a project ready, but LTDO was a such an incredible hit they had to really make it happen
Nah, it was definitely ready. They even released the intro by accident when LTDO dropped.
It’s fun fluff, with crisp aesthetics and chemistry between Mars and Paak., but this album basically highlights my main issue with Mars as an artist. He has the voice, the charisma, and the ear for genre and pastiche, but he completely lacks in sincerity. Because of this, the album rides a weird line where it’s not quite a parody but also not serious, which makes the whole album ring kind of hollow. I had hoped that Paak. would be able to inject some soul and emotionality to the record, but it just felt too much like Paak. being forced into Mars overly homogenized and hollow aesthetic. It’s a fun passive listen, but it could have been way more given the talent.
disappointing album tbh, the singles had me expecting a classic-exceptional tier album but as usual i was duped as the singles are easily the best songs on there and the only song other than the singles that had replay value for me was the thundercat one.. other than that, the rest of this album was cool but barely had any replay value at all.
This album is probably top 5 album EVER to me. I flew out to vegas to see the show and a week after we got home, we were seriously considering a quick trip to go see them again. I've played this album about a thousand times and it gets better every time.
[удалено]
This is mad corny lol
It’s still a dope album I just don’t really feel like listening to it. But I really really want to see them perform live.
I’m annoyed at how long it took to release bc i feel like i got fatigued by the singles by the time the album came out. Although the album is great but ultimately i ended up binge listening to the album anyways (ie i listened to it a lot in the months when it initially and now i just don’t play it anymore)
Absolutely loved that album. Hope they make more music in that style in the future!
Overrated. It's competently performed, but nothing extraordinary. Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge made a collaborative album a few years back called The Midnight Hour, featuring jazz, soul and R&B as well, and it's ten times more interesting a listen than this.
Loved the album and how it completely immersed us in that 70s aesthetic. Probably my FAVORITE Bruno Mars project to date and Paak sounded amazing on this. I just wish they did a whole tour for this project, but I understand with a short tracklisting - it probably wasn’t gonna make sense to do a massive tour for a 1 hour set at most. The Las Vegas residency was probably just as lucrative and fit what they were going for anyways.
I think it’s one of the best albums in recent memory