Song review: Surprise! The seventies are back!

Bruno Mars is at it again! The notorious pop singer has teamed up with Anderson .Paak from the group Silk Sonic. They recently announced their upcoming album An Evening With Silk Sonic. Their first single, “Leave the Door Open,” came out on March 14. 

“Leave the Door Open” is a departure from current R&B. Mars and .Paak sing with feeling and sincerity, showcasing their vocal chops without getting gaudy. 

They elected to use real instruments as backing, with .Paak playing the drums and Mars playing conga and guitar. They even brought on a string ensemble to seal the love ballad deal. 

The song’s beautiful production complements its performers and accentuates their strengths. The listener detects notes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye in their performance. 

“Leave the Door Open” could have easily come out fifty years ago. It toes the line between the music of the 70s and today. 

Silk Sonic’s . performance of “Leave the Door Open” at the Grammys drew heavily upon the past. 

Mars and .Paak sang dressed in maroon bell-bottom suits with enormous lapels, dancing on a shag carpet floor. The classic lens flares and fade-cuts made the artists’ intentions obvious: to bring back the 70s. 

This is just a taste of what is to come from Silk Sonic. Their upcoming album is hosted by Bootsy Collins, who is the glue that brought together Mars and .Paak. 

Collins was an instrumental figure in the 70s music scene, playing in Bootsy’s Rubber Band and Parliament-Funkadelic. 

His signature bass style and tight horn arrangements defined the funk landscape of the 70s, which ultimately gave rise to the birth of hip-hop in the 70s and 80s in bands such as the Sugar Hill Gang. 

Decades later, Dr. Dre began to sample Bootsy’s bass licks and funky rhythms, using classic R&B as a backdrop for his own rap on The Chronic in 1992. 

The soul music from which hip-hop arose was infused back into hip-hop. Dre’s patented G-Funk dominated West Coast rap for years, giving artists such as Snoop Dogg their rise to prominence. 

Hip-hop’s explosion in popularity during the 90’s began to counter-influence R&B music, beefing up the beats and making it palatable to a much wider audience. A new genre, neo-soul, was born with artists like D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. 

Today, the line between hip-hop and R&B is even more difficult to define. R&B artists like Blood Orange and Dvsn have embraced the electronic production modes of modern hip-hop, while others like MICHELLE and The Internet continue to use session instruments, staying truer to the origins of neo-soul. 

Mars and .Paak’s decision to bring Bootsy Collins on as a guest host to their album may mark yet another evolutionary stepping stone in the intertwined stories of hip-hop and R&B. “Leave the Door Open” is doing more than paying homage — it’s bringing the past into the present. 

The line between old and new Soul has never been a stark one, and the pairing of Mars and .Paak with Collins is a testament to that fact. 

Perhaps we will see a resurgence of 70s influences in the music of the 2020s. One thing is certain: these three are cooking up something, and it sure smells good from here.