Bruno Mars represents the re-musification of pop artists on mainstream radio. Along his progression from Hawaiian kid Elvis impersonator to backing band showman to session songwriter to finally breaking out with his own act, he has accumulated about every critical lesson of the musical old school to inform his current reign in the limiest limelight.
He's no song and dance guy, but he can song and dance. He can play every instrument expertly. He sings like a beast. His songwriting and producing skills are a mixture of lost old-school panache and the most modern current trends.
But here is the turning point. He then covered over all the steeped musical substance with a macho-yet-feeling, confident-yet-strange persona that inexorably attracted a legion of mainstream admirers. The ascent of a talent like Bruno Mars is anything but likely.
I think his best song, so far, is "That's What I Like," a sex and possessions fantasy that is flagrant wish fulfillment, but may turn out to be far more satirical than anyone suspects. Whose wishes, after all, are being fulfilled in this song? Are these the wishes of a specific person he personally knows? I wouldn't be surprised if these were more the wishes of the singer himself, or at least the character he plays. What if, knowing his audience, he gambled and wrote a song that meshes with the wishes of his most profligate patrons? What does this say about them, or what he judges them to be?
Probably the best way to think about these lyrics is to stop thinking so damn much. It's sex by the fire! And diamonds! You have a problem with shopping trips in Paris? Everyone with a problem shopping in Paris, raise your hand! Bruno just wants to please. Put down your buckets of cold water.
Listen to this insanely cool production, the synth textures mixed with a sick funky bass line. Sharp changes and pinpoint staccato attack.
That "jump in the Cadillac" pre-chorus has just the gnarliest, snarliest close chord changes, busting with all the funky sevenths.
The choruses and bridge are these airy, silly over-dramatic exultations. He is intentionally, whimsically flying out of control, embracing a kind of meta-fun that more and more sneaks into what used to be such a stilted formula in pop radio (in a time where meta-fun has left what I hear on indie radio).
Any band that prides its funk (and its fun) needs to be able to reel out this song. If you've ever chopped a minor minor-7th chord over a funk bass line, "That's What I Like" is your new homework.