Most people reading this will be hanging out to know one thing: is the rest of Mark Ronson’s fourth solo album as good as his hit single Uptown Funk? The short answer is no – but not because the rest of the album lacks quality. In all fairness, that song is one of the catchiest pop/funk singles of the last decade, so it’s hard to top. There’s still a lot here to offer.
Australian’s should recognise the vocals of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker littered throughout the album. Unfortunately his first appearance on Summer Breaking sounds more like an ‘80s prom band than the ground-breaking collaboration it should have been. Thankfully their second attempt, Daffodils, is the kind of electric trip you’d expect. This is also one of the tracks written by Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Wonder Boys. Chabon is credited for co-writing almost half the tracks on the album.
I Can’t Lose, featuring 23-year old Keyone Starr, takes you back to the days of ‘90s R&B, while rapper Mystikal goes the full James Brown, ranting about fruit, kittens and saying “muthafucker” a whole lot on his track Feel Right. It’s a great prelude to the funk/soul single that follows. Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt delivers vocals on two tracks. Crack in the Pearl works as an extension of the Stevie Wonder intro (yes, that’s actually Stevie collaborating on the album).
Lyrically, In Case of Fire is intriguing but isn’t quite the energetic pop anthem anyone expected of Jeff Bhasker’s only credited song. He produced the album with Ronson and has previously worked with the likes of Kanye West and Alicia Keys. Kevin Parker’s final track is a magical synth-pop mash up and a whole lot of fun.
The album closes with another from Andrew Wyatt called Heavy & Rolling, and Stevie Wonder popping in again to supply the outro. Ronson chose to work with only a handful of artists this time but it feels the album could have benefited from a more diverse mix of collaborators and sounds. It’s not as good as 2010’s Record Collection, but still worth a listen.
BY CHRIS BRIGHT
