An Evening with Silk Sonic couldn’t be more fitting as an album title as this piece of suave sweet seventies sound is just that.
Rating: 4/5
From the first thirty seconds of the opening track, ‘Silk Sonic Intro’, I feel as if I’m gingerly brushing aside a beaded portiere to enter a living room lined with colourful shag carpeting, exposed brick walls, oversized plants and uncomfortable-looking sofa’s littered with random patterned pillows.
In the corner of this sitting room is the legendary Bootsy Collins making himself a stiff drink. Bootsy Collins or Bootzilla (as he refers to himself) has a shamanistic role throughout the album. His soothing melodic voice and famous bass lines transforms him into your own personal tour guide as we travel through the funk-filled minds of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.
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The majority of this piece of music was created and compiled during quarantine. However, you wouldn’t know that listening to it. There is notably no heavy or bleak tracks and this was purposely done. Mars said in an interview with suffering through an extremely uncertain and stressful period, he didn’t want to listen to any depressing music, nor did he want to make any: “I want the escape”.
They definitely succeeded in this pursuit, as their debut collaborated release “Leave the door open” set the tone of what they are trying to achieve. “That song was like our mission statement”, .Paak says. The tracks soft vocals and lush harmonies, reminds me of The Delfonics gorgeous 1969 album, “The Sound of Sexy Soul”. It teleports you from a pandemic to a plush mansion sipping wine (sip, sip).
Mars is renowned for being an uncompromising perfectionist, even claiming that dozens of versions of this album have been discarded due to minor errors or qualms. His meticulous, almost mathematical approach is in direct contrast with Anderson.
Paak’s, whose fluidity and free form style oozes from his very being. However, perhaps Ying and Yang would have been a more fitting band name as the chaotic jazz-like form of .Paak totally and utterly compliments Mars’ thought-out and scrupulous techniques.
A constant throughout this piece of work is .Paak’s flawless drums and it is no more prevalent than in the finger-snapping-shoulder-swaying anthem, “Smoking out the window”. The duo utilise simple imagery filled lyrics and witticisms to make nearly every track joyful – especially this one. There wit and humour is match by their musical acumen.
The perfectly timed drum beats and wiggly slap bass accompanied with killer hooks is a theme through the album but when. Paak bellows the line “THIS…BITCH…GOT ME PAYIN’ HER RENT, PAYIN’ FOR TRIPS” it is near impossible for me to not sing along – which has caused rather awkward moments on public transport.
The braggadocio and swagger of the two friends drip out of each line on tracks like “777” or “Fly as me”. They also recruited help from one of a contemporary funk-father in, Thundercat. To me, Thundercat is like a funky space ghost who has come back from the future to tell us the climate crisis can be solved with vociferous bass lines. His instrumental prowess and soft vocals haunt the track “After last night” and brings us to a fantastical land of sexy funk.
listening to An Evening with Silk Sonic pic.twitter.com/IQomVvuTQJ
— KNICKS ON MSG (@KnicksMSGN) November 12, 2021
This album is much more than an imitation of something retro or a nostalgic period piece. Bootsy Collins acts more of an endorsement from the Funk Gods than anything else. It is a pastiche of seventies soul and swagger with the injection of avant-garde harmonies and lyrics that will allow this artistic endeavour to breathe deeply and comfortably in the thick inauthentic atmosphere of the 2021 music scene.
More than that, they make love cool again. This is embodied by the incomparable Bootzilla when he says, “Take it from your Uncle Bootsy / Ain’t no shame beggin in the rain / Tell her how you really feel”. Their combination of funk, rap and R&B meld together to create an Ode-to-Soul that the greats would be proud of.