Bruno Mars
Unorthodox Jukebox

The showbiz is overflowing with emulators, imitators, and heirs of the late Jackson and the Motown phenomenon, and in an era where plagiarism disguised as imitation, trumpet-blowing considered to be solemn tributes to the memory of the majority, and the trend of copy-pasting on the score represent the major labels' main source of money, it's hard to appreciate yet another bunch of artists all the same, blatantly dull and almost manufactured artfully with a pastry cutter. Originality, novelty, and the feeling of being in front of something genuinely "unprecedented" are increasingly rare and risk becoming extinct along with WWF's protected species, especially since today's average listener, who remains stagnant in front of charts, hits, and momentary successes doesn't even seem capable of recognizing quality and separating it from the throwaway disc useful only for some gyrations on Ferragosto.

The character of Bruno Mars, a sunny Hawaiian young man, didn't immediately give me profound sensations, and even now, I don't go into raptures listening to his songs. Initially, Mars seemed just another chewed and re-chewed candy by the voracious jaws of the music industry, good only for some successful featuring with more established colleagues and, at most, for a timid debut album: a good-natured guy, the classic heartthrob for teenagers in full hormonal swing, with easy and informal dress, sugary songs (Just The Way You Are) or tragically emotional ones (Grenade), maybe garnished with pitiful music videos (remember the gibbon-man dance in The Lazy Song?). And yet, the new Mars brand has given a not-so-timid shake to pop, pocketing tens of millions of copies with singles Just The Way You Are and Grenade and equally good recognition for the first album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, a work I confess I haven't had the "honor" to listen to yet.

Bruno Mars' winning strategy, which secured him support from major Western charts, focused on rejecting the pop excess à la Lady GaGa and on recovering the simplicity and basic essence made into a song. Riding the wave of the soul-R&B resurgence after the long reign of electronics in all its sauces, the Hawaiian did nothing but mix all those sounds denied and neglected by deejays and synth producers into a stew that is palatable and digestible without too many venereal shocks. And the main dish from the first appreciated spread can only be served again, albeit with some variations, in a second mass banquet: Unorthodox Jukebox, the new album by the artist, indeed reflects the desire to combine radio pop but not cacophonous, sweet and carefree melodies, some ghetto-hip hop nuances, rich funky-reggae sprinkles, and a pinch of rock 'n' roll without too many excesses, all packaged in a good record of easy, fast, and painless listening, perfect for the charts yet not blatantly commercial and artificial.

What prevails post-Mars debut is the absolute calmness of the underlying mood which, almost extraordinarily, doesn't falter into a soporific lullaby and suicidal lament. And so tracks like If I Knew (a sort of homage to Ray Charles' soul-blues), When I Was Your Man, a moving piano ballad, and the romantic and almost "Christmassy" Young Girls admirably escape the fatal abyss of pathetic flatness and sugary syrup. The same goes for the somewhat more "dynamic" tracks: Treasure is a successful attempt to insert itself between Jamiroquai-style disco and Motown-influenced funky-blues, Moonshine dives into 80s rock nostalgia akin to Spandau Ballet, the first single (perhaps the least convincing of the tracklist) Locked Out Of Heaven mixes reggae, funky, R&B, and even some synth fragrance, Natalie serves as a 2.0 version of the wrenching march of Grenade while Money Make Her Smile dares a bizarre soul-electrorock idyll.

Profoundly surprised by an album that seemed to promise little to nothing, I dare to grant a secure chair in the pop parliament to Mr. Mars, an apparently annoying, not so limber, fake penny-romantic who actually offers an easy-listening yet well-made album, genuine in its genre and honest in its intentions. Should the mainstream (bi-genre) follow this young man and turn the binoculars to the semi-tropical paradise of Honolulu (which would also be the boudoir of the coquettish Nicole Scherzinger)?

Bruno Mars, Unorthodox Jukebox

Young Girls - Locked Out Of Heaven - Gorilla - Treasure - Moonshine - When I Was Your Man - Natalie - Show Me - Money Make Her Smile - If I Knew.