When you think of someone with ADHD, who comes to mind, is it a woman in her ...
Just this constant feeling of being too much, you know, too kinetic, too loud, all of the
two, anything.
“And just really feeling like people got some kind of social rulebook that I never got.”
The changing face of ADHD, that's this week unexplained to me. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Megan Rpino here, this week on a Touchmore, we've got something for everyone. We're talking about the US women, Olympians, taking home more medals than the men. The US Women's National Team roster heading into the Shea Beliefs Cup, and the latest
on the WMBA CVA negotiations. Check out the latest episode of a Touchmore, wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. It's 1955. You're driving down ocean drive in Miami Beach in your Ford. Thunderbird, tops up, you've got your arm around your best girl, and you're slowly
turning the volume up as the radio plays your favorite love song. Wait, wait, I'm so sorry, I was looking at the wrong notes. That is in fact, risk it all. The opening track of Bruno Mars, latest album, The Romantic. What year did you say it sounded like?
1955, give it a take. I'm going to argue 1969. Get out of here, Charlie. Wait for it. To the music.
Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan, and I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Bruno's back.
“All right, what is our favorite hit maker up to here?”
Why are we hearing 1950s boleros at the start of Mars, latest release? And will this album match the pureless pop success of its predecessors? Charlie, these are some of the questions I want to ask as we dive into the Romantic together. It seems like Bruno Mars took a time machine, it's been a decade since his last solo release. And somehow, rather than moving forward, he has gone backwards.
But doesn't he always tend to look backwards while he's looking forward at the same time?
He does. I mean, one of his earliest albums was "Do Wops" and "Hooligans." And I feel like that duality of the old and the new has animated his entire career. Yeah, let's do a quick refresher that previous solo album you mentioned was 24 carat magic from 2016. That's huge.
And then there was the dual album with Anderson Pack, where they dubbed themselves "Silk Sonic" and released an evening with "Silk Sonic" in 2021. 70s Philly's soul throwback. And not that he's been quiet since then. I mean, we've talked about Bruno a lot on the show. There was the massive hit with Lady Gaga, "Dye with a Smile."
Arguably his biggest song ever, "Uptown Funk" was number one for 14 weeks. "Dye with a Smile" was number one for five weeks. But it was on the charts for 60 total weeks compared to "Uptown Funk's Only 56 Weeks."
“I think it has more streams on Spotify than any other song.”
So he is going strong two decades into his career. We also had "Upata" with "Rose" right, of course. Hey, Mickey. I'm so fine. I'm so fine. You blow my mind. Hey, Mickey. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was singing Hey Mickey.
The pastiche is always going to be there.
And we knew this with the release of the first single from this album The Romantic. I just, much. I just might was also in this 70s soul bag that we've come to know and love from Bruno. But I'm pleased to say that after listening to the rest of the tracks on this nine song, "Confection," a nice short 30 minutes, this is not just another retread of those vintage sounds.
In fact, this album might make the case that Mars is pop great counter programmer,
Finding those styles of the past that no one else has yet mind.
Like you said, Charlie, Mars helped usher in what's been over a decade now of Retro, disco, funk, and soul.
Thanks to songs like "Uptown, Funk," and "24" "Carrot Magic," but here we're going to explore some new territory. Latin, Belarus, like the one we heard up top, Cuban, Chachas, New York and Buggaloo, urban soul. You'll notice I named a number of Latin genres. Yeah, right? This album is a bit of Bruno reclaiming some of his own Latin heritage, which is something he's avoided in the past.
Actually, in a 2013 interview with GQ, he talked about how he often felt stereotyped early in his career by record executives.
“"Your last name's Hernandez. Maybe you should do this Latin music, this Spanish music."”
Enrique so hot right now. That's him paraphrasing what these executives would say to him. So maybe he resisted Latin music because of that stereotyping. But I think with this album, it seems he is ready to embrace those sounds. And I mean, there's a calculation to this as well. This is a good time to lean into Latin pop, right on the heels of the Bad Bunny Super Bowl. Super Bowl, yeah. And the cultural dominance of his album, Debbie Tierra Masfotos. I mean, Gaga even did a salsa rendition of Dye with the smile.
That's right.
“It was such a surprise and a really great rendition.”
So arguably, there's never been a better time to drop an album that's full of references from the history of Latin American pop music.
And like you said, Charlie, there's only nine tracks here. Let's go through them one by one and see what Bruno is up to on the romantic. But sounds he's pillaging for his own personal gain. And whether we think this has the merits to be another smash hit, like pretty much everything else he's given us over the course of his career. Usually delivers, we've already listened to this, but it bears repeating. This album starts off in a pretty unexpected way. [Music] Punching brass, lush strings, beautiful, cascading, Spanish style guitar.
It feels like we're in Havana right before the Cuban Revolution. And then Bruno enters with his vocal. [Music] When I say "Bolero", I'm referring to the genre of that emerges out of the Havana music scene way back in the 1930s.
“And it becomes, and remains to this day, like, one of the most emblematic sounds of Latin music, I think.”
It has been adopted like all over the Latin diaspora at this point. There are so many examples. I feel like I want to listen to a track by Los Panchos and 80 Gourmet called Subore on me to get a feeling of like the classic "Bolero" sound. [Music] [Music] Hmm, there's that urning, plaintive style, but it's interesting. It's not just the sound that Bruno is borrowing.
It's also the structure. If we keep listening to "Risket All", we can focus in on the way he builds these long phrases that keep kind of unfolding until they finally reach their destination with the title phrase "Risket All". [Music]
It's the same phrasing as that "Bolero", we just heard Subore, I mean, it bui...
And how about that title phrase, Charlie? It's smart. We're back in the do-op and hooligans world here.
“Well, this whole song is old, right? The instrumentation, the structure, the style and vibe. But that phrase, "Risket All" is kind of new.”
I mean, certainly people have been saying some variation of this I imagine for centuries, but it has a certain coding that is like Gen Z social media meme language. It reminds me a lot of when Bruno Mars with Slicesonic did leave the door open, a response song to the 70s Philly Soul, a great Teddy Pendergrass and his song "Close the Door". And in that song, Anderson Puck has a line. We should be dancing, romance, and in the east wing and the west wing of this mansion, what's happening. And all of the orchestration is old, but the way that he builds his flow and the words that he uses are incredibly modern.
We should be dancing, romance, and in the east wing and the west wing of this mansion, what's happening. Yeah, I remember we identified that as the triplet flow, that was very popular in hip-hop at the time, through tracks like Versace by Migo. So yeah, there's this blending of the old and the new that keeps this from just sounding like pastiche, but nevertheless kind of a bold opening here, telling us, "Hey, don't just expect the same old Bruno isms, I'm gonna keep you on your toes."
“Well, at the very top though, Nate, you said that you felt like we're in the 1950s, I think that you might be in the wrong country and in the wrong time.”
Okay, because I think that this is more of a Mexican ballero and chiro with the sort of mariachi style horns that you hear in it. And I think that we have to also travel to Hollywood as well to 1969, because I think that risk at all is a mariachi my way in the style of Frank Sinatra. And more, much more than this, I did it my way. We are not only in the same key, we are traversing a lot of similar harmonies, a lot of the chords feel lifted from my way. The song is an A-A-B-A structure, you know, your old classical pop, and if you're like, "I'm not quite buying the connection." Well, about two minutes before I connect it with you, Nate. Yes, I matched them up together. Here is Bruno Mars singing "Risket All" to the backing track of my way.
But it's true, it's nothing I won't do, I risk it all. Bravo, bravado, Charlie. It's so funny that you just did that because when I got to the title line of "Risket All" the first thing I thought of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" that is such a similar melodic ending. But "Risket All" for you, did it my way that dissent down to the tonic when you're holding out the second degree of the skill, and just waiting for that resolution. Yep, but I wasn't tracking how similar the rest of the chords are. That's a really cool mashup.
I mean, I literally did that second to go, and the phrasing almost always matches up with the chords. There are a few moments where it misaligned very briefly.
The length of that entire section being exactly the same. Yeah, they're in the same key. They are maybe 10BPM apart or something, but they're really close.
“I think that that was probably Bruno's reference track was "Let's update my way." Let's bring in a "Blerra and Chero" and let's kick it off. I did not see this coming.”
Mariachi, my way. That is a powerful way to start an album, and then we move right along to another iconic Latin music genre or dance style.
Cha, cha, cha. This is track 2, check. Yeah, I feel like doing the Cha Cha. This is a really fun track. What are we referencing here?
Yet another genre that emerged from Cuba in the 1930s, Cha Cha, and later bec...
And this moment before the communist revolution, where there was a huge amount of musical exchange between those two countries, remains a staple of Latin dance.
“But it's not something you've necessarily hear a lot in the pop world. What is it?”
Well, the Cha Cha is a rhythm that gets its name from the first 3 beats. Cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha.
It's like the sound of the percussion? I don't want to over-simplify it, but there's some elemental groove that you might hear in the Congos and the Bungos and the Guero in some combination of percussion instruments. It's this very kind of light, airy feel. It lends itself to very fast acrobatic dance movements, but it's also kind of accessible. It's like kind of an intro dance as well.
“So, Charlie, if you want to like get into Latin dance, maybe that's a good place for you to start Cha Cha, cool.”
But as we might expect by now, the song also adds something new. When we get to the chorus, we find a mashup of those Cha Cha rhythms.
And these chords and harmonies that are borrowed from the same world of Philly Soul that we've heard Bruno go back to again and again. Cha Cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha, cha. Love the Chimes. What a wild mashup. Because we have the, yeah, the giant string arrangement of the Philly Soul sound. Yeah. But then we have a double interpolation happening. Juvenile with, she's working that back. Go to Juvenile's slow motion from 2003. Who is Juvenile? Do you mean Juvenile? Sorry.
Juvenile is like a Roman senator. Oh my gosh. I'm deeply embarrassed. I have a head cold right now. I'm gonna blame it on that Juvenile.
“And a simultaneous interpolation of, I like it like that. The Pete Rodriguez track from what is it?”
In 1967, a Bougalu hit another genre reference that we're in here moreover. Which brings us full circle to Bad Bunny because he had I like it with Jay Balvin and Cardi B back in 2018 that sampled the same thing. One of the great flips of 21st century. For sure. So cha, cha, cha continues the interest in mining Latin genres that we heard from the start with risk at all. But now we're moving to track three. It's that massive single we already mentioned. I just might. I said on first listen, I was like, okay, here's more classic soul. But now that we've got this Latin background, let's listen again and see if there's anything remiss.
Something I never noticed until I started listening to the track again and again. There is a konga line going throughout this. Oh yeah track. I just might.
So even though there's a lot of references to classic soul songs people have noted that there's traces of Leo Sayers. You make me feel like dancing here. As well as the classic come and get your love by red bone, the group that remains one of the only native American rock groups to score a billboard hit.
I've heard people also know Katrina and the waves walking on the sunshine.
I don't know who can own a while. But I mean, this is what Bruno does. He takes this like cauldron of songs that you know and mixes them all together. So you can't say, oh, it's that one thing.
“Right. It becomes this amalgamation of all of them. And we should mention also people say junior seniors move your feet is also maybe in here as well kind of a more modern edition.”
So I think this song is destined for a similar future to uptown funk. It's going to be in every wedding playlist for
the next Eon probably. It just might. And when you are hearing it at your aunt's reception in the Marriott on Main Street.
“So listen for that konga in the background of this track and remember that, hey, there's some Latin influence here as well.”
Where's it going next? God was showing off a was he now. And this is just straight Philly soul. I mean, I don't, I don't even, I'm not going to try to find the secret Latin influence here. This is just silks on a continued indeed.
Oh no. Oh, except for the very opening, it turns out. I'm trying to get him. Let's go. Except for literally the count off, but then what happens next.
I am wrong. I am wrong in real time on the pod, doubly wrong because I forgot about the Spanish intro Uno Dos Tracy, Ocho Viz. And then yeah, there's more Latin percussion here it turns out. I wonder this is pure speculation. This is not an area that I feel like I have an effects, but I wonder if the success of Latin pop in the 1950s led to sort of the infusion of Latin percussion into other genres.
“Because obviously we hear Latin percussion in full soul. We hear it in disco. It persists and I think all pop music. The Congo, the Bongo, the Cowbell, countless other percussion instruments as well.”
The symbolic that we would encounter in a classical house track. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, I think you're right. I think the popularity of that music in the 1950s filtered through the rest of the century and beyond and maybe we'll hear some other examples of that as we move through the sub, but this is a pretty fun song. There's some good lyrics. Is heaven your name or is it divine? Doesn't matter, girl. It's going to look good next to mine. I mean, it's pretty cheesy. I will say that, but if you're going to be cheesy, you might as well lean into it. Yeah, I do think this song has some other great nods to filly soul though. I love this sort of all band orchestrated hits together.
That you know what's on the tip of your tongue. What are you here at? Soulful Strat. Oh, wait, play it for me. Oh, yeah. Wait, wait for it. By young, whole, unlimited, but you had something else. I, yeah, I'm hearing some Billy Paul. If you go to the same location in me and Mrs. Jones, about 225, check that out. Talk about the romantic, the build to the break to the searing vocal. Yeah, there's that formula. So I'm talking about when we were listening, I found another Latin percussion moment in the world.
God, we're showing off to you.
There's that little Tim Timbali film.
There's tons of Latin percussion. There's tons of references to classic Philly soul. It's the whole bag of this album.
Yep. All right. Let's take a quick five. When we come back, we're going to hear more Latin genres. We're going to hear more soul classics and we still have five songs to go. [Music] Do you want to hear all of this? Yeah, exactly. This story is so deep. The story is just a story. A Garlop Studio, Job or Unzug. [Music]
[Music]
Hey, Caris Wisher here. I want to let you know that Vox Media is returning to South by Southwest in Austin for live tapings of your favorite podcast.
Join us from March 13 through the 15th for live tapings of today's flank. Tephi Talks, Prof. G. Markets, and of course your two favorite podcasts, pivot and on with Caris Wisher. The stage will also feature sessions from Burnet Brown and Adam Grant. Markets Brownlee, K-Plee, Vivian 2 and Robin Arzon. It's all part of the Vox Media podcast stage at South by Southwest, presented by Odo. Visit VoxMedia.com/SXSW to pre-register and get your special discount on your innovation badge.
“That's VoxMedia.com/SXSW to register. Really, you should register.”
We sell out and we hope to see you there. [Music] I'm going to be real. I don't have a lot to say about this next one. Why you want to fight? Question mark? Because you're face-nate. [Music]
Kind of another Billy Paul moment. Yeah, Billy. Yeah, space where you kind of gently fall back to Earth. It's got the same as a clock in the field that he also uses and leave the door open. Yes, which is B.S. borrowed from Seals and Croph.
[Music]
“I think it's something else on Seals and Croph summer breeze.”
I think it's a toy piano. Oh, similar tambour. Yeah, we'll give it to you. Same, you know, same mellophonic sound world, perhaps. All right, allow me to move on to one of the little marks I did about. This is on my soul.
[Music] Yeah. [Music] [Music]
Okay, first of all, move more light on the cushion. Sorry.
“And then yes, okay, yeah, that's what I should have led with.”
How exciting as a lifelong fan of Curtis Mayfield to hear Bruno referencing Curtis Mayfields move on up. [Music] Really fun to hear basically an interpolation of this song. I mean, it's so similar, honestly. Here's the big difference. I mean, when we get to the chorus of Bruno's on my soul, pay attention to the lyrics.
[Music] It is essentially like everything Bruno has ever sung as far as I can tell a love song. I mean, I've been going through the Bruno Mars catalog. This dude does not sing about anything other than love sex and heartbreak. Someone out there find me another example of Bruno Mars not being romantic or carnal in some way.
I would love to hear it.
He is occupied with the subject of relationships.
Yeah, Curtis Mayfield on the other hand, move on up is really a very political socially conscious song like a lot of his works. He sings, "Hush down child and don't you cry. Your folks might understand you by and by. Move on up towards your destination. They may find from time to time complications. It's a song about the generation gap about how society was changing in the 1970s, how certainly the oppression that African-American people were facing during the time when she addressed in many other songs.
“The fact that it's phrased as a lullaby, I think is a really powerful contradiction between the underlying sort of dance nature of the song.”
It feels very adult and yet he's saying this to a child singing that gentle falsetto you're right.
There is this kind of interesting tension between the frenetic music and that really sort of tranquil vocal melody. And Bruno uses that same tension but in a different way to talk about dealing connected to someone in the face of chaos and change on my soul. So there's a creative reworking of Curtis here. Though part of me is like, I'd like to see you lean into those kind of more socially conscious lyrics as well, but I'm not entirely sure that's in Bruno's wheelhouse. Though the next song does have a promising title for us, something serious.
Is this going to be his power to the people moment? Let's find out. I don't believe so. No, it is not. It's another song about a boo thing. This song could have gone either way, right? Something serious.
“Or is this thing between you and me something serious?”
It's something you say as a teenager in your first relationship and boo thing.
I mean, continuing to use contemporary language. What was that song? Little boo thing? Paul Russell. Who knew that we needed Paul Russell mashed up with Tito Puente? That Paul Russell song was itself a mashup of the emotions. Best of my love, I think. You want to say?
We live in a world where everything is just getting recycled and permeated. Yeah. And this song, something serious is no exception. Yes. We've got Buggaloo here. Another Latin music genre that emerged out of the New Yorkian scene of the 1970s. The track that comes to mind for me is originally by Willie Bobo.
It's called Evil Ways. Which was later covered by the Latin rock band Santana. I heard the other Santana cover. Which is a cha cha cha written by Tito Puente. What's blinded into Santana?
Let's make us up in serious. There's the organ from the Santana. The ballet. That is going to crush on the world tour. It totally is.
I feel like he's really in conversation with Santana in this way who made such a successful career off of collaborating with other artists and doing lots of interpolation and covers of other songs. I mean, I'm thinking about what you asked earlier. How does that Latin music crazy that the US experienced in the 40s and 50s
“like trickled down through the rest of the 20th and 20th for centuries?”
And one of the ways it does is through the work of groups like Santana
Who take those classic sounds and update them.
They made it so smooth.
And then other bands will come along and do the same thing with Santana.
So it's like the shame continues, you know, the circle will not be broken. All right. Now we arrive at the final two tracks. We've got nothing left. Another sole pastiche, a good pen ultimate track.
Nothing left. It's a little bit of a gotcha moment. There's a lot of cool stuff happening here. But I'd like to highlight the very end of this one actually.
“Yeah, would you have an out a little bit of the end here?”
Ooh, the Hendrix moment. Oh, the Hendrix moment. Killer killer band. It's a very sort of 70s rock kind of thing going on there. The sort of modal movement and the harmony.
I feel like I've come around just believing that if you do something great and it's very successful, you can go ahead and try it again and, you know, rehash it and let it be good again. The exact same chord movement that we get in either the die with the smile. That's my last time. That's from the minor to the major.
Yeah, very similar.
“I would love you having my life just the last night.”
Like it's the last night. It's full. That big suscored. Same thing in nothing left. Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. That's the same key. There's another mashup for you, Charlie. Oh, that's fun. All right.
What are you hearing? Well, I wanted to go back to what you were saying about the musicians on this. Like, there's killer electric guitars.
There's amazing trumpet solos on this record.
There's killer bass lines throughout. And a lot of these musicians are the same ones that Marce has been working with for like over 10 years. I don't have the full personnel of this album unfortunately. It just came out a few hours ago. But I remember when I listened to Uptown Funk for the first time.
And one of the things I loved about it was the bass playing. Just so sinuous and funky in the pocket. That was courtesy of Jim Mario Artis and he is all over the romantic. So there's a lot of musical consistency. There's also a lot of consistency in the songwriting and production team here.
These are the same folks that Bruno has been working with for years. We've got Philip Lawrence, Brody Brown, James Fontleroy. These guys have been with him from the beginning.
“And then there's D-Mile producer who's kind of a more recent addition from I think the silksonic years on.”
So maybe there's a reason that Bruno Mars is able to be so consistent and always deliver the good, so to speak.
It's because he's surrounded himself with people he knows and trusts. And that brings us to the final track track nine dance with me. The throwback of all throwbacks six eight breezy soul track that feels like the perfect way to end the romantic. So this album ends with a fade out that's just so, so classic some of you never hear any more in fairy old school. And this kind of jangly guitar in a six eight rhythm with this beautiful request to simply just dance with me kind of spinning out into eternity.
Now Bruno's not the only person to take on this retro sound recently. The artist Steven Sanchez came to mind when I heard this track, his song "Until I Found You" was a big TikTok hit and then became a big hit period. Same kind of six eight duopi grew similar like ice cream changes chords and this seems like the right way for Mars to end this album. Because it's very comforting, it's very classic sound, it's nostalgic, it's moving.
He's going to start the album with a risk at all when we call it Mariachi Myw...
But ultimately, if we look back on everything we just listened to, there's nine songs here full of the classic soul and funk references that we might expect, plus a healthy dose of Latin musical styles ranging from
Bollero to Bollero, Ron Chero to Chacha to Bougalu and even when you least expect it, you might find a Timbali Phil or a Conger rhythm.
So I feel like there's some growth here, some evolution in Mars sound, and yet at the same time, these are crowd pleasers. Oh, he songs go down easy.
“They're not challenging you, honestly, they're not making you think they are delicious.”
Are they nutritious? Who am I to say? They're pretty fun. They're high calorie pop songs.
And I feel like everyone could be a radio hit, and everyone will have an audience of thousands screaming along for the rest of Bruno Mars career.
I totally agree. You called him the King of Counter Programming, and he could go and reference the thing that everybody else is doing, which is also retro, but instead he always kind of finds a way of finding the thing that is like a generation removed. Or it's the thing that you had listened to 10 years ago that you forgot about, and you're like, "Oh, thank goodness that that's back in my life." I have no problem with that. I think oftentimes it's easy to say, it's just a copy. But it's a little bit more like he is mixing the entire culture of pop music and making new brews out of it, and it's delightful. It's romantic. I had a similar takeaway.
“I think when I'm listening to Bruno this album included, I'm saying, "Okay, where's this from? Where's that from?" But when I step back, I think, you know, ultimately he has his own sound.”
Oh, yeah. What we're hearing is the sound of Bruno Mars. And there are these very distinct influences, but what it all amounts to is something that can't be reduced to just an interpolation or a pastiche.
It's something original and he's really staked his claim to that sound and good for him. And thank you for just nine tracks. That is Morgan Law and Pay attention to that, okay?
Bruno Mars, he did it his way. Switched on pop is produced by your an accrues edited by Elizabeth Soav, engineered by Brandon McFarlane, Miller's Fishings by Iris Gottlieb, a theme music is by Josie Evans's Actionary of Arc Iris, remember the Vox Media Podcast Network and Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine, you can subscribe to my mag.com/pod. If I just have social media at switched on pop and tell us what else you're hearing on the romantic. We've got a playlist of, I don't know, 30 songs.
But I feel like there's so many more that we could detect here. So tell us what you're hearing. Tell us what you're liking. Tell us what you're not. What kind of impact is Bruno going to make with this with this latest release? And are you feeling romantic? I want to know. While you're at your keyboard or device, you might as well go over to switch it on pop.com, sign up for our mailing list, get your bingo card. We're still playing bingo folks. I just scratched off one. No spoilers, but it might have to do with the Christian music hit category.
So keep playing. Oh wait, don't we actually have a way for people to like play along now in real time? Yes, you can go to bingo.switched on pop.com to play along. One of the squares did not get crossed off. We got it wrong. Bruno Mars did not return with Scott. So that's gonna mess up a couple of bingo programs. It's not too late. I mean, he puts out singles like it's no-one's business. So it's not too late. We got lots of time in the year still. Anyway, you can find that and go to switch to pop.com, and you can go to our website. You can get a nice little switch on pop mug, paint, yellow, beautiful thing.
I'm holding one right now. Your coffee couldn't taste any better in it. We also have the piano ballad charting that could have been something we heard on the romantic, but last was not.
“So I have to stay tuned for that. All right. All right. All right. That's more than enough, right, Charlie?”
Yep. We'll be back again next Tuesday. And until then, thanks for listening.
