Pop’s most reliable showman, Bruno Mars, released his long-awaited fourth solo studio album “The Romantic” Friday — his first individual release in a decade. While Mars has proven he can release anything — from the retro-soul of Silk Sonic to high-profile collaborations with Blackpink’s Rosé or Lady Gaga in recent years — and still be met with commercial success, this album perhaps relies too heavily on that goodwill.
“The Romantic” follows “24K Magic,” the 2016 album that swept the 2017 Grammy Awards with wins for Album, Record and Song of the Year. “24K Magic” was notable for its charisma and confidence, while blending throwback R&B with a new modern flair. “The Romantic,” by contrast, is more of the same from Mars and lacks the spark that once made his retro impulses feel revitalizing.
Across nine tracks in just under 35 minutes, Mars pulls from sounds of classic 1970s R&B, Latin pop, soul and funk that are designed for dancing. The result is undeniably groovy and technically polished, but feels more like a tribute to the past than a meaningful evolution of it.
Mars’ discography has long-been defined by his ability to channel emotion. He made waves in 2010 with his debut album “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” introducing him as a sincere chronicler of love and heartbreak with hits like “Just the Way You Are,” “Grenade” and “Talking to the Moon.” Two years later, “Unorthodox Jukebox” introduced a raunchier side of Mars on tracks like “Locked out of Heaven” and “Treasure.” By the time “24K Magic” arrived, Mars had fully embraced his lust and swagger, but not while losing a sense of passion that felt convincing.
That passion, however, often feels forced on “The Romantic.” Mars sings of devotion, longing and desire with lyrics that rarely cut deep — and when they attempt to, they are often drowned out by production that sounds more like background music rather than emotional accompaniment.
“The Romantic” starts off slow with a 20 second instrumental opener in the song “Risk It All,” a love ballad filled with mariachi horns, strumming guitars and soaring strings one might hear in a telenovela soap opera. This Latin influence, along with the song’s genuine and romantic lyricism, are what make this opening track a standout on the album. “Say you want the moon, watch me learn to fly / Ain’t a mountain you could point to I wouldn’t climb,” Mars sings earnestly.
The momentum continues on the second track, though less successfully, with “Cha Cha Cha,” a sexy song built around Latin horns and steady percussion. Mars fixates on a woman he wants to cha-cha with, framing his desire to be with her through the act of spontaneous dancing at a nightclub. The lyrics, however, do not move beyond surface-level flirtation and rely heavily on vague expressions of attraction such as “I like it like that, she workin' that back” and “Little mama, you turn me on,” calling into question the album’s title in only the second track.
Mars teased listeners earlier this year when he dropped the third track, “I Just Might,” as the album’s lead single, paired with an energetic, dance-forward music video. The funk-filled track finds Mars pleading with a DJ to play a song for a “pretty little lady” he is desperate to see “dance as good as she look right now.” If this story feels familiar, that is because it is nearly the exact same one as “Cha Cha Cha” but with a different sound. It is also worth noting its similarity to Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” although Mars’ song is sonically busier. Despite its repetitive premise and objectifying lyrics, “I Just Might” is the catchiest song on “The Romantic,” with an infectious beat that makes the head just want to bop.
Less catchy are “God Was Showing Off” and “Why You Wanna Fight?,” two forgettable tracks that also struggle to build on the romance that “Risk It All” promised as the album’s opener. The former closely resembles Barbara Acklin’s iconic 1969 single “Am I The Same Girl,” borrowing from its breezy soul arrangement but with less soul. “Why You Wanna Fight?” fares no better, cycling through the repetitive question about a relationship conflict without ever providing context or emotional escalation to give it meaning.
In “On My Soul,” Mars attempts emotional depth with the promise “On my soul, I’ma love you like you never been loved before,” but the sentiment is hardly felt due to the song’s rushed tempo and beats that evoke department store ambience in its genericness rather than devotion. Mars’ grand declarations of love would perhaps resonate deeper if the words weren’t glossed over and instead given the space to breathe and be felt.
Mars continues to yearn in “Something Serious” — a vocal standout that, yet again, lacks lyrical depth. The words, “You should be my boo thang, my boo thang / I should be ya mans” feel painfully unserious, rendering the track’s title almost ironic. Still, the song’s bossa nova groove is hypnotic — at least until hearing Mars ask, “Don’t you want some pretty brown Bruno babies?”
The album regains some footing with “Nothing Left,” a guitar-heavy track about a romance on its last breath. He passionately belts, “Feels like I’m, I’m reaching out / With nothing left to hold on to,” exemplifying the emotional clarity in lyricism that “Why You Wanna Fight?” lacks. The song also gains brownie points for its Jimi Hendrix influence that is hard to miss in an electric guitar interlude and perhaps in Mars’ bandana-adorned forehead on the album’s cover.
“The Romantic” finishes strong with its smooth and slow final ballad entitled “Dance With Me,” where Mars croons a tune about rekindling an old love through a dance. Devoted listeners of Mars might recognize a trend of emotional comedown in his album conclusions. This can be found in “Too Good to Say Goodbye” and “If I Knew” from “24K Magic” and “Unorthodox Jukebox,” respectively, which similarly conclude the rollercoasters of emotions that come before in their albums. In “Dance With Me,” Mars sounds the most like his measured, sincere and grounded self that fans are familiar with.
Let it be known that Bruno Mars remains a gifted vocalist with a natural sense of rhythm and phrasing. The album grooves, glides and gifts listeners with a soundtrack to dance a night away. But for an album that roots itself in the language of soul and romance, “The Romantic” rarely feels profound enough to be considered the romantic album it claims to be.
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