With only a handful of albums in 17 years, Grammy-winning artist and eternal showman Bruno Mars has still somehow built one of pop music’s most enduring catalogs, proving timeless songwriting still rules the charts – and his 4th LP just dropped
By Dan Salamone
Some stars of music, tv and the silver screen just seem timeless, like they have been a natural part of your world your entire life. Bruno Mars is like that. Though he has only really been shaping our world for about 17 years (his first hit single was as a featured guest on BoB’s massive #1 charting & 6 million selling “Nothin’ on You”), his manner, persona and his music is timeless. He feels like he’d be just as much sharing the Billboard chart with Ray Charles in 1954, The Supremes in 1965, Marvin Gaye in 1977, Michael Jackson in 1983, or The Weeknd in 2026. As much as music changes (most notably in the last 15 years via the ongoing “let’s make the entire pop chart sound generically identical” curse of autotune), the principals of what makes a great pop or soul song are much the same. True talent has always known how to craft relatively simple but catchy melodies and universal sentiments about the human experience into a song the whole world can sing and dance to.
Bruno Mars is a part of this grand musical tradition, and the world has embraced him for it. Since that auspicious 2009 debut, Bruno Mars has sold an astounding 150 million albums in his career and an equally astounding 100 million singles. His fourth album, 24K Magic, won the Grammy for Album of the Year, beating out classics from Kendrick Lamar (Damn), Jay-Z (4:44), Childish Gambino (Awaken, My Love!), and Lorde (Melodrama). These artists he triumphed over weren’t just flashes in the pan churning product for the major labels. Those are some of the most beloved and critically revered artists of the millennium, names that will go down in history, and Bruno Mars belongs right along side of them.
Here’s the crazy thing about Bruno’s stunning success so far: with all those stunning numbers–including the 130 million different people who listen to his music monthly on Spotify, much more than other superstars like Lady Gaga (96 million), Billie Eilish (89 million), Drake (86 million), or Kendrick Lamar (76 million)–testifying to his success, he has only released four albums in 17 years in the public eye. His latest album, released February 27th of this year, is called The Romantic. True to his superstar status, the first single, “I Just Might,” debuted atop the Billboard singles chart.
The critics have been effusive in their praise as well. Allmusic’s 4 star review described it as “a well-dressed set of nine finely crafted love songs.” Britain’s premiere music authority, the New Music Express (NME), said “with ‘The Romantic’, pop’s economical king of ear candy has surely extended his reign” in its 4 star review, and the venerable Rolling Stone’s 4 star review declared “This is an undeniable half hour of deeply felt music designed to please the people, and educate us all a little, too.” Even less enthusiastic reviews from elevated taste makers like Slant magazine noted “It’s hard to resist the nostalgic charms of the swooning “Dance with Me” or the “Got to Give It Up”-inspired beat of the short and sweet “Something Serious,” and America’s most prominent shapers of the musical zeitgeist, Pitchfork, noted “He is still a charismatic performer and a naturally talented singer with a tone that can switch quickly from crystalline delivery to a rum-soaked rasp in his upper belt. When he channels the latter, The Romantic reaches its better moments.”
Bruno Mars is the rare true artist in the modern era, one uninterested in constantly flooding the market with product in a desperate bid to remain always in the public eye. It’s been a decade since his last album, and yet he has remained more popular than ever. He’s spent the last decade continuing to find and articulate his own specific sound, his own specific loves and concerns, and on The Romantic he continues a joyful dialogue with his own catalogue, music history, and his hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, and it is the timelessness of his music that ensures that conversation and that fandom will continue for a long, long time.