Some people might roll their eyes at the idea of a funk
album in 2015. There’s an awful lot of retro music coming out these days.
Whilst there are a lot of cheap imitations, Mark Ronson’s latest full-length is
a true homage carried out with soul and conviction.
The UK producer and songwriter has got famous for his recent
hit ‘Uptown Funk’, which employs a Kool & the Gang vibe, complete with big
bold horns and synths. Whilst this track is definitely fun, it’s one of the
more dumbed down moments on this record and only one of several impressive funk
flavours on display. There are electrofunk tracks here in the style of Chaka
Khan, guitar-driven Steely Dan tributes and an f-bomb-laden James Brown homage
sung by New Orleans rapper, Mystikal.
Admittedly, there isn’t much to link it all together and the
album does feel like a 70s-themed iPod playlist on shuffle at times. However, look
beneath the initial messiness, and you soon realise that the songs here are all
brilliantly composed, written with an expert attention to sonic detail. Every
sound is engineered to sound as authentic as possible from the timbre of the
funky basslines to the hazy chorus effect on the vocals. He even hires the help
of Stevie Wonder to lay down some harmonica solos to give it that extra touch
of genuine seventies soul.
The result is an album that will make you want to rent a
muscle car and drive down an empty American road into the sunset. You'll want to grow your hair and cover the walls in
flowery paper. Forget the mass unemployment, sexism and general political
unrest. I want to live in the seventies.
★★★★☆
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