Album review: Mark Ronson – ‘Uptown Special’

Words by:
Dan Bull
Follow @DanBull7609

The fact that Mark Ronson bagged a Best British Male BRIT Award without singing on his record gives a small indication of the talent and impact the man has. Not content with producing tracks from some of the most iconic albums of the last few years (Adele’s 19, Amy Winhouse’s Back To Black) and assisting legends with some of their biggest hits for some time (Paul McCartney, Duran Duran), Ronson has delivered three of his own records, initially dipping his toe with the hip-hop centric Here Comes The Fuzz, before a braving a whole foot in with the blast-of-brass Version, and diving right into his own solo career with 2010’s blend of the two, Record Collection.

For anyone who’s spent the last few months buried alive, Uptown Special’s lead single Uptown Funk gives a strong indication of what to expect from his latest collection. The Bruno Mars-starring instant anthem is the biggest, audience-spanning number since Pharrell’s Happy, assisted by a certain, controversially-chosen X Factor performance. Following years of tampering with vintage sounds, Ronson has taken funk and dropped a bomb in that aforementioned pool. Everything that makes his sound so recognisable – pop-friendly melodies, with urban rhythms beneath and squealing horns on top – still stands with an added slice of funk beneath each. Look no further than the fact that Stevie Wonder appears, playing the harmonica on opener Uptown’s First Finale.

While the special guests don’t get any more special than that, admittedly, it’s a first class line-up: Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker brings his dreamy influence to the already previewed Daffodils (a fuzzy, layered stack of psychedelic funk, above) and Summer Breaking which, like the latter, could quite easily have featured on the soundtrack to a 1970s, US sun-soaked film soundtrack. Andrew Wyatt (who leant a hand with Record Collection) brings an expected, spaced-out atmosphere with Crack In The Pearl, while Heavy And Rolling – all “tank full of gas… Don’t know where we’re going” references – bounces on its bass-line, meandering between electronic effects with classic guitar echoes and a smooth, seemingly effortless vocal.

The album’s co-producer Jeff Bhaskar (famous for production and co-writing credits for artists including Kanye West, Alicia Keys and The Rolling Stones) actually appears on the record for the first time during Watch It Burn, an almost Paul McCartney and Wings-esque bomp, but of course it’s Bruno Mars whose vocal you’ll remember long after the album has finished, despite how strong the rest of it is. As Stevie Wonder once again appears to shut the funk up, it’s Uptown Funk that will play inside your mind for the foreseeable future. And when Ronson tours and hits the festivals this summer – with a hit-heavy set to rival any other headliner – it’s Uptown Funk you’ll want to hear again and again. Don’t believe me… just watch.

Uptown Special is out now – download directly via the iTunes link below, and stream the album in full after the jump: