1 	Young Girls 	3:49
2 	Locked Out Of Heaven 	3:54
3 	Gorilla 	4:05
4 	Treasure 	2:56
5 	Moonshine 	3:49
6 	When I Was Your Man 	3:34
7 	Natalie 	4:45
8 	Show Me 	3:28
9 	Money Make Her Smile 	3:14
10 	If I Knew 	2:13

Bass – Nick Movshon
DJ Mix [DJ Shit] – Mark Ronson
Drums – Homer Steinweiss, Steve Jordan
Drums [Additional], Keyboards [Additional], Effects [Additional FX] – Emile Haynie
Guitar – Bruno Mars, Sharrod Barnes
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Andrew Wyatt
Guitar, Bass, Percussion [Beats] – Mark Ronson
Keyboards – Jeff Bhasker, Bruno Mars
Percussion [Beats] – Mark Ronson
Piano – Bruno Mars
Producer – Dwayne "Supa Dups" Chin-quee (tracks: 8), Emile Haynie (tracks: 1, 2, 3),
 Jeff Bhasker (tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5), Mark Ronson (tracks: 2, 3, 5), The Smeezingtons (tracks: 1-10) 
Vocals - Bruno Mars

Pretty much the biggest pop star in the world right now whose name isn't Adele, Bruno Mars is ubiquitous and prolific with it.

Both with and without his songwriting/production crew The Smeezingtons, Mars has had a hand in hits by Cee Lo Green, Sugababes, Justin Bieber, Adam Lambert and Alicia Keys, and has scored a clutch of UK and US number ones under his own steam – all in just a couple of years on the scene. Either he's the new Smokey Robinson or he's spreading himself so thin he'll be a chirpy pop gauze by 2013.

Well, he's not quite see-through yet. It's soon plain that Unorthodox Jukebox lacks the immediacy of 2010's Doo-Wops & Hooligans – there's no Marry You here, and certainly no global chart-topper like Just the Way You Are.

But it's appealing, generally engaging and all shot through with the confidence of a man who must feel he's got the hit parade Midas touch. Bar the odd misstep, he probably won't have a rude awakening.

Those stumbles are Show Me's wan facsimile of Musical Youth's Pass the Dutchie (one of 2012's more unlikely influences) and the sugary early 80s funk of Treasure, which is lathered in so much slap bass it starts to sting.

Speaking of Sting – ouch – his spectre is all over first single Locked Out of Heaven, in the clipped Message in a Bottle chords and Mars' yelping, staccato delivery. But that's about the only time Mars allows his own identity to be subsumed.

Otherwise, he's equally cosy fronting saucy semi-rock belter Gorilla – "You get your legs up in the sky with the devil in your eyes" – and sprinting on the spot to the unhinged electro-soul of the Diplo-produced Money Makes Her Smile.

The latter's some respite from maudlin "My baby wronged me" / "I wronged my baby" stuff in Natalie and When I Was Your Man, but there's room for both in Mars' repertoire. Rock, soul, RnB and starry-eyed pop – he's across it all. ---Matthew Horton, BBC Review

Pierwszy album Bruna Doo-Wops & Hooligans odniósł nie tylko spory sukces komercyjny, ale zyskał także przychylne recenzje krytyków. Często w takich przypadkach, wydając drugą płytę, trudno jest zachować zadowalający obie strony poziom. Mars znalazł jednak sposób na utrzymanie równowagi w tej kwestii jeszcze przez jakiś czas.

Na Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno kontynuuje założenia, które sprawdziły się na poprzedniej płycie. W chaotycznym repertuarze po raz kolejny znalazły się: typowy utwór z wpływami reggae („Show Me”), ballady prostodusznego romantyka („When I Was Your Man”, „Young Girls”) oraz nieskomplikowane popowe kawałki („Money Make Her Smile”, „Natalie”).

Mars nie byłby jednak sobą, gdyby nie zaprezentował nam przebojowych numerów, których inspiracji należy szukać nawet o kilka dekad wcześniej. Wokalista czaruje i urzeka damską część publiczności słodkim głosem w piosence na wzór hymnów z lat 60. – „If I Knew”, hołduje zespołowi The Police w singlowym „Locked Out of Heaven” oraz odświeża funkowo-dyskotekowego ducha dawnych potańcówek w wibrującym „Treasure”. Stara szkoła swobodnie miesza się tutaj z nową. Łatwo wpadające w ucho, oparte na żywych instrumentach podkłady tworzą idealne radiowe, ale niebanalne, hity.

Unorthodox Jukebox to bezpieczna kopia poprzedniej płyty, która sprawi, że Bruno nie będzie musiał martwić się o swój los przez najbliższych kilka miesięcy. Pytanie tylko – co potem? Obawiam się, że przy następnym wydawnictwie fani mogą wymagać czegoś więcej niż jedynie poprawności. ---Eye Ma, soulbowl.pl

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1 	24K Magic 	3:46
2 	Chunky 	3:06
3 	Perm 	3:30
4 	That's What I Like 	3:26
5 	Versace On The Floor 	4:21
6 	Straight Up & Down 	3:18
7 	Calling All My Lovelies 	4:10
8 	Finesse 	3:10
9 	Too Good To Say Goodbye 	4:41

Backing Vocals – James Fauntleroy, Christopher Brody Brown, Philip Lawrence, Lisenny
Backing Vocals, Talkbox – Bruno Mars
Drums – Homer Steinweiss, Eric "E-Panda" Hernandez
Guitar – Dave Foreman
Horns – Dwayne Dugger, Jimmy King, Kameron Whalum, Ken Lewis
Keyboards, Soloist – Greg Phillinganes
Producer – Shampoo Press & Curl, Emile Haynie, Jeff Bhasker
Talkbox – Byron "MR. TALKBOX" Chambers
Drum Programming – The Stereotypes

Though 24k Magic is shorter than any Stooges record, human Super Bowl halftime show Bruno Mars still wears a lot of hats: giddy uptown-funk savant, bumping-and-grinding R&B time-traveler, Ashford & Simpson–esque quiet-storm balladeer. He also sounds like he’s wearing airbrushed overalls too since the majority of the album hearkens back to the new jack swing and Cooleyhighharmonies of turn-of-the-Nineties charts ruled by Boyz II Men, Bell Biv DeVoe and Bobby Brown. The only thing America’s greatest pastiche pop star is missing on his third album is the hooks to hang it all on.

Mars wanted Magic to recreate the nostalgic wonder of the school dances he attended in the Nineties – and his crowded productions, infectious attitude and soaring voice go well beyond “tribute” into the realm of “IMAX reboot.” “Perm” is a future-shocked James Brown hip-hop hybrid that sounds like an update of please-please-pleasers Son of Bazerk; “That’s What I Like” brings the silky vibes of 12 Play–era R. Kelly into the boom of modern trap; “Finesse” is a modern BBD bite down the rat-a-tat “Poison” snares. The chorus to “Calling My Lovelies” – “I got Alesha waiting/Iesha waiting/All the –eeshas waiting on me” – feels like he’s writing himself into the adult epilogue of Another Bad Creation’s playground romance complete with a thirsty phone call to Halle Berry’s answering machine. The arrangements throughout are simply outstanding, bubbling and percolating with ADD explosions of melodic counterpoints, overdubs, subplots and funky worms.

But while his funk game is strong and swagger is stronger, Bruno’s acclaimed hook-writing (which has garnered four Number Ones for himself and tons of co-writes on other chart-toppers) has seemingly taken a backseat. Lyrically, it seems like he’s trying to recall the Nineties subliminally via breadcrumbs scattered throughout the record, saying “freaking me” (Silk) or “nice and slow” (Usher) or “ain’t nobody” (LL Cool J via Chaka Khan) or “damn” (Mr. Show sketch Two Plus One Minus One). If it’s intentional, it scans as cloying; if it’s accidental, it scans as lazy. “Versace on the Floor” is the umpteenth tribute to Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” in an era that didn’t need them from Wiz Khalifa, Nelly, Wale or Kygo. Lead single “24k Magic” is already drooping its way back down the charts and it’s not impossible to understand why when compared to the sugar-coated bombast of “Uptown Funk” or “Locked out of Heaven.”

So, 24k Magic may not be the most glittering display for Bruno Mars the pop star, but fans can rest assured it is a shining moment for Bruno Mars the producer, arranger and nostalgia curator. Nothing on his level of success gets to look or sound or feel like this – no diggity, no doubt. ---Christopher R. Weingarten, rollingstone.com

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