VIDEO: Bruno Mars - That's What I Like

Personally, I think Bruno Mars' has over-estimated the public's affection for cheesy R&B sex ballads. But then, the US was always kinder to the likes of Keith Sweat and Bobby Brown than we were in the buttoned-up, Thatcherite 1980s - so maybe this new single makes more sense to the home crowd.

The video for That's What I Like focuses on Bruno's charismatic choreography and delivery. And, in case you lose attention, someone has scribbled lines all over him, like he's the living embodiment of the cover art for Janet Jackson's Control (which, coincidentally, features an amazing R&B sex ballad called Funny How Time Flies).

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Oldtown Funk

Just when you thought you'd had enough of Uptown Funk, here comes an invigorating cover by Nigerian singer Alex Boye.

Apart from the fantastic vocal harmony arrangement, the video is a shot-by-shot parody of the original - with dancing pensioners playing the part of Bruno Mars's backing band The Smeezingtons.

Boye posted on Facebook the cast of his "oldtown cover" were all grandparents who "did their own stunts". A strict Mormon, he's also sanitised the lyrics - so "put some liquor in it" has been amended to "put some Kool-Aid in it", and "hot damn" has become "hot dang".

Thank goodness he didn't hear my five-year-old's interpretation of the lyrics. Last week, I caught her spinning around the kitchen gleefully singing: "Up, down, fuck you up".

Alex Boye - Oldtown Funk

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Discopop Directory: Top 10 singles of 2014

When I sat down and totted up my iTunes play counts for this year's Top 10, I had to double check my numbers. I had fully expected Clean Bandit's Rather Be and Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud to be among my most-listened-to songs of 2014 and, while both came close, the data doesn't lie.

So, the following singles are the ones I've compulsively added to iTunes playlists over the last 12 months and they represent the soundtrack to my year, free of self-censorship, editorialising and Sam Smith.

10) Charli XCX - Boom Clap
It's safe to say Charli XCX had low expectations for Boom Clap. She sent it to Hilary Duff. She bunged it onto a film soundtrack. She wrote the lyric "the beat goes on and on and on" and couldn't be arsed to change it.

But the track sparkles - partly because, for once, Charli isn't trying so hard to come across as a teen rebel. From the masterfully concise intro to the honey-drop "la la las" in the final chorus, it's a great big hug of a song.

Oh, and the lyric "you're the glitter and the darkness in my world" couldn't be a better fit for The Fault In Our Stars and its skewered tale of young love.




9) SBTRKT ft Ezra Koenig - New Dorp, New York
The best-sounding single of the year, throbbing with mystery and possibility - even though it's just a bass drum, an elemental bassline and a few sound effects.

Ezra Koenig delivers a dream-state vocal, listing the sights of Staten Island and "flag slappin' Manhattan", although what he's actually on about is anyone's guess.

It's just a shame the rest of SBTRKT's album didn't live up to this promise.



8) Katy B - Crying For No Reason
AKA Katy B's secret weapon. A Guy Chambers co-write, Crying For No Reason is a "proper" ballad about the damage caused by buried emotions, with a hat-tip to Madonna's Frozen in its clattering drum fills.

Katy's delivery makes the song indispensable. "I never faced all the pain I caused," she sings with tangible anguish. "Now that pain is hitting me full force".



7) Prince - Breakdown
Twelve months ago, I would never have expected a Prince single to feature in this Top 10. But here he is, reinvigorated by those hit-and-run London concerts, delivering his most devastating ballad since The Beautiful Ones.

Apparently an autobiographical account of his former excesses - "I used to throw the party every New Year's Eve / First one intoxicated, last one to leave" - it's also a love letter to the person (higher power?) who set him free.

If Frank Ocean had released this, it would have been everywhere. But Frank Ocean could never have hit those high notes in the coda.



6) Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk
Speaking of Prince, here's a tribute act.




5) Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat
By Lorde's standards, Yellow Flicker Beat is a minor single but there's something about her performance that draws me in. Maybe it's the killer hook, maybe I'm hypnotised by the frail hum that runs through the entire song - either way, it's murderously addictive.

As with Boom Clap, Lorde's song is a perfect marriage between lyric and source material (in this case, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay). If you can't imagine Katniss Everdeen singing "I made a little prison and I'm locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me," then you're doing it wrong.




4) The Staves - Blood I Bled
The Staves really raise their game on this Bon Iver-produced song, the immaculate layering of their harmonies matched by the steady build of instrumentation from a single, hand-picked guitar to the soaring, astral strings of the closing moments.

Truly exceptional.




3) Jessie Ware - Tough Love
"Sophisticated" and "tasteful" are dirty words in pop but Jessie Ware proves they don't have to be. Tough Love has a surface layer of calm, but listen closer and you'll hear the strain in Jessie's voice as she confronts a no-good lover - "so you want to be a man about it, do you?" We never find out exactly what he's done, but the cheeky lift from Prince's Little Red Corvette suggests it's not just his eye that's been wandering.

Repressed anger has never sounded so beautiful.



2) Tove Lo - Truth Serum EP
Rarely does a pop act arrive as fully-formed as Tove Lo, whose dispatches from the front line of love are catastrophically honest.

The Truth Serum EP is an X-rated Mills and Boon potboiler, chronicling a relationship from the first heady rush of love to a devastated, drug-fuelled break-up.

Every track hits you like a hurricane - the pop hooks deployed like rock riffs as Tove excavates her darkest secrets. No wonder her mother was worried about her when she heard it.



1) Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
Let's face it, Shake It Off was more calculated than Fermat's Last Theorem. Co-written with not one, but two of Sweden's biggest hitmakers, it was stuffed with heard-it-before hooks, yawnsome self-empowerment clichés ("haters gonna hate") and employed the phrase "this sick beat" without any apparent irony.

But if Taylor's ambition was to write a stone-cold pop classic, she hit the nail on the head. Squarely. With a fucking jackhammer.

The melody is indelible, and the urge to dance like a dork is irresistible, thanks to that infectious drumbeat. Oh, sick beat. I get it now.

PS: The song would still be better if she sang "bakers gonna bake, bake, bake, bake, bake". And that's a fact.

And, because it's been a great year for singles, the next 11 would have been:

11) Banks - Beggin' For Thread
12) Tove Stryke - Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking To You
13) Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
14) Gorgon City ft MNEK - Ready For Your Love
15) Clean Bandit - Rather Be
16) Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
17) Beyonce - Partition
18) Kelis - Rumble
19) Ed Sheeran - Sing
20) Katy Perry - Dark Horse
21) The Veronicas - You Ruin Me

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Songs you may have missed: AMA special

A semi-regular round-up of songs I should have blogged about, but didn't.

This week, I've spiced things up with a few performances from the American Music Awards, which will probably have been whisked off YouTube before this sentence ends. Take your chances below...

1) Sam Smith ft A$AP Rocky - Stay With Me
Vocal chops, he's got 'em.




2) Ariana Grande - Break Free / Love Me Harder
Vocal chops, she's got 'em.





3) Fergie - LA Love
Vocal chops, she's got 'em on a backing tape.





4) Beyonce - 7/11
The best thing about this home-made video is discovering Beyoncé's bedrom is just as messy as mine.




5) Taylor Swift - Blank Space (AMA performance)
Magic tricks, homicide and another outing for Taylor's crazy eyes acting face. Superb.




6) Take That - If You Want It
I do not want it.





7) Gwen Stefani - Spark The Fire
After the lacklustre response to Gwen's comeback single, Baby Don't Lie, this Pharrell-produced club has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Thankfully, it's a cheerleader earworm in the vein of Hollaback Girl.





8) Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk (Live on SNL)
I just checked and this song is still amazing.




9) Clean Bandit - Show Me Love
Sounds exactly like you'd expect a Clean Bandit cover of a 1990s house classic to sound. It's like Hooked on Classics all over again.





10) MNEK - The Rhythm
MNEK's Wrote A Song About You was one of this year's best singles - smart lyrical conceit, indelible melody and insane vocals. The fact that it stalled at no. 66 is a genuine travesty.

His follow-up isn't half as adventurous, but it'll probably sell a bucketload.





11) Paul Oakenfold ft Azealia Banks - Venus
After years of delays, Azealia Banks's Broke With Expensive Taste turned out to be quite good after all. And this collaboration with Paul Oakenfold (who must be about 75 now?) is an Ibiza sunset delight.

The career rehabilitation starts here.




12) Years & Years - Desire
There's an argument that the UK electro-house scene is starting to become saturated, from Disclosure downwards. But I reckon Years & Years might squeeze in a few hits before the door slams on the scene forever.

Desire, their latest single, is getting a few spins on Radio 1 and they've just made it onto MTV's "Brand New for 2015" list. Ones to watch.



13) Labrinth - Jealous
Not sure how I missed this when it came out last month, but after last night's X Factor performance, it's leapt into my consciousness (and, more importantly, the iTunes top 10). A terrifically heartfelt piece of songwriting.

An exhaustive list, I'm sure you'll agree... And there are plenty more AMA performances (Lorde, Charli XCX, Selena Gomez) that are worth checking out if you can find a valid link.

Back to business as normal tomorrow.

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Video: Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk

One week on, and this Mark Ronson / Bruno Mars single Uptown Funk is still strutting around my brain like a particularly funky peacock.

When it premiered last week, I noted its similarity to The Time - and their Purple Rain-era material in general. The video does nothing to dispel that notion, with Bruno and The Smeezingtons channelling the syncopated moves, comedic timing, and tidy threads of Morris Day and Co.

And, after an opening segment that's inspired by Guys & Dolls (or is itWe Could Have Been Anything We Wanted To Be??), it ends up in a facsimilie of the First Avenue Club, where the majority of Purple Rain was shot in 1984.

It goes without saying that this only makes it better.

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Mark Ronson's new single sounds like...

This song.



And this song.



Also, this song.



A little bit of this song.


A-lacka-lacka-boom of this one.


And a few nods to this one.



That's not a criticism. I'd kill to have written one of those songs. And so would Ronson - who readily admits that 70s and 80s funk classics were the inspiration for his new album.

"No matter how my taste in music and DJ-ing veers over the years, I always find myself coming back to that music I would play out in hip-hop clubs in NY in the late 90s/early 2000s", he says in a needlessly long press release for his new album, Uptown Special.

"Biggie, Chaka Khan, Amerie, Boz Scaggs, Missy, Earth Wind & Fire, N.O.R.E... Those songs would set alight the dance floor. The NY club scene was filled with girls, boys, dancers, drug dealers, rappers, models and skateboarders who came mostly for one reason: To dance. And regardless of genre or era, if the song was good - if it had dope drums, if it had soul to it - they danced. Before smart phones, bottle service and smoking bans, people came to the club, found their spot and stayed all night, absorbed in the music. With Uptown Special I set out to capture the feeling I remember from those New York nights".

OK, Mark. We get the point.

Here's the song. It has Bruno Mars all over it.

Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (ft Bruno Mars)

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Katy Perry's entire Prism album, and six other songs you may have missed

It's Friday, so it must be time for the customary round-up of new songs from the last seven days. This week's line-up looks like this:

1) Katy Perry - Prism
Officially out on Monday, Katy Perry's uploaded her third album to SoundCloud in its entirety, in a bid to combat the people who leaked it yesterday.

The release also coincides with the first swathe of reviews. They're mostly positive - but The Guardian, with depressing predictability, has written a sneering critique of the album's lyrics.

Alexis Petridis's article is based on the flimsy premise that, when Billboard called Prism "Katy Perry's most spiritual album to date", it was somehow suggesting she had consulted Deepak Chopra and M Scott Peck to create the most insightful and revelatory excavation of the human psyche ever to appear in popular song.

Thankfully, the co-writers are mostly Swedish (to paraphrase Petridis, the liner notes read like an IKEA catalogue) and the lyrics are, for the most part, totally unimportant. And, although nothing quite strikes you like Roar, it's a thundering collection of melodic pop.

Recommended tracks: Legendary Lovers, Walking On Air, Unconditionally.





3) Little Mix - Move (Alias Remix)
Good song. Good remix. Job done.





3) Eminem - Rap God
So this is what it sounds like to be reinvigorated. Eminem, on a six-minute lyrical rampage, proclaims "I'm beginning to feel like a Rap God," and actually sounds more deserving of the title than Kanye "Yeezus" West.

Lyrical gems include: "Got a fat knot from that rap profit / Made a living and a killing off it / Ever since Bill Clinton was still in office / With Monica Lewinsky feeling on his nut-sack / I’m an MC still as honest / But as rude and as indecent as all hell".

Phew.





4) James Blake ft Chance The Rapper - Life Round Here
From the video's YouTube description: "The video, shot entirely in black and white, tracks Blake and Chance as they cruise in a lowrider through an eerie forest inhabited by stallions and Somalian pirates." How can you resist?




5) Rebecca Ferguson - I Hope
"Interesting fact": The most-read article I wrote on the BBC News Website last year was this interview with Rebecca Ferguson. It wasn't spectacularly insightful, or even well-written. The public just have a huge reserve of affection for the Liverpudlian singer.

They're going to lap up her new single, I Hope, which arrives after an ugly and protracted spat with her former managers. Launching with a rollicking drum roll, you kind of hope it'll see Rebecca spitting with fury, like Rolling In The Deep vintage Adele.

She doesn't, of course, but the song is an urgent and uplifting and an instant classic.




6) Lady Gaga ft R Kelly - Do What U Want
This is only a 30-second clip but it restores my faith in Gaga's ability to write a straightforward pop song. The best ArtPop preview to date, not that that's saying much.




7) Bruno Mars - Gorilla
The Indian press is up in arms about this video, in which Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto stars as a stripper (SPOILER: Bruno Mars is seen "cavorting" with her at the end).

Pinto's representatives even issued a statement in her defence to the Hindustan Times, which protests: "Freida’s look in Gorilla is quite a departure from what we otherwise see. Apparently, when she was approached with this opportunity, she knew that this would be a reincarnation of sorts for her and she was quite thrilled to do it, being the risk taker that she is".

It's no Blurred Lines - there's a storyline to explain the raunchy bits - but I still wouldn't watch it at work, unless your boss is particularly easy-going.

And that's your lot. Have a great weekend.

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Bruno Mars: Not from the archives

He's the Instagram of pop: Bruno Mars keeps putting retro filters over his videos. Treasure, the fourth single from Unorthodox Jukebox, takes me back to Kool & The Gang on Soul Train in 1977. Look at the way the spotlights burn out the camera, and that hopeless strobing effect at 1'15". It's all done with such loving attention to detail, you've got to admire it. And the song's not bad either.

Bruno Mars - Treasure


Update: IndieGoPop just tweeted to ask the question "wouldn't it be better if Bruno synced up his track to proper Soul Train archive footage?" I'm paraphrasing - but it's a valid point. Especially when you see the Daft Punk video they attached.


AMAZING.

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Bruno Mars sings The Little Mermaid and other songs you may have missed

A semi-regular round-up of songs I didn't have the time or inclination to write about over the last week. It's like a mini Friday mixtape composed of YouTube videos.

1) Bruno Mars - The Little Mermaid medley
Impossible to dislike: Bruno Mars performs Part Of Your World and Under The Sea for Radio One's Live Lounge. He also did one of his own songs. I'm not posting that.




2) Katy B - Danger EP
Mercury nominee and 'Easy Please Me' hitmaker Katy B is readying her second album for 2013 - but she gave fans an early Christmas present today, by posting a free EP on her official website. With a pretty stellar line-up of special guests, it features Jessie Ware, Wiley, Diplo and Iggy Azealia. Stuffed full of sub-bass, soulful vocal licks and 8-bit video game FX, it's already stuck in my head like a meat cleaver.

3) Biffy Clyro - Black Chandelier
This is the first "proper" single from Biffy's forthcoming double album. Due out in early 2013, the 20-track set was originally going to be called The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones / The Land At The End Of Our Toes. Thankfully, someone sobered up long enough to notice this sounded like the dialogue from a particularly bad episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, and had it changed to the much more compact "Opposites".

4) St Lucia - September
80s-obsessed, Pitchfork-approved pop outfit St Lucia are being tipped for big things in 2013, but they need to sort out their self-indulgent intros if they're ever going to get daytime raido play. Their new single, September, takes more than 2 minutes to get to the chorus, and another 80 seconds before it really kicks into gear. But if you have the patience, it's a great song.

5) Emeli Sande - Clown
"Success is impatient. Your audience is waiting." Clown is about Emeli Sande's struggle not to be restyled and remoulded when she was shopping for a record deal. "I was going for all these meetings and people were looking at me like 'What do we do with you'?" she says in the YouTube introduction to the song. "I feel the video reflects that". With her album clocking up its millionth sale this week, Virgin must be pretty glad they allowed her to stand her ground.

Sande is off to "break the States" in the new year, but she won't be forgetting her fans in the UK. Earlier this week, she teased the prospect of a new EP on her Twitter account.

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Bruno Mars: Locked Out Of Heaven video

This still sounds like two completely different songs welded together. And one of those songs is blatantly a Police b-side. But it kind of works. Kind of... (The chorus doesn't quite achieve blast off, but it'll be stuck in your head for the rest of the day anyway.)

The Instagram-tastic video plays to Bruno Mars's biggest strength: Namely that he's a brilliant, if off-puttingly sweaty, live performer. Fans of the singer's enormous collection of pork pie hats might be worried by the opening three minutes, but if your persevere 'til the end, you will receive your reward.

Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven

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Stuck on repeat

Nick Grimshaw, who is turning out to be a witty, inclusive breakfast show host on Radio 1, was expounding his personal theory of music this morning. The best way to have a hit single, he explained, is to repeat the title as many times as you can in the body of the song.

I can think of a few huge exceptions - Bohmeian Rhapsody and Unchained Melody, for example - but it chimes with something Benny Anderson of Abba once said: "The title of the song should always be the first line of the chorus". True enough, it applies to all but four of the tracks on Abba Gold.

Grimshaw illustrated his theory by playing a supercut of Rihanna's new single, Diamonds, in which she repeats the title 32 times. That's 30" of the song's entire duration. I've put together my own version here:



By contrast, Bruno Mars has just released his comeback single Locked Out Of Heaven, a spiky pop tune with more than a little nod to The Police. The title crops up a paltry six times. He is simply not trying hard enough.



Has he doomed himself to lower sales that Rihanna? Only time will tell...

Still, the song's not bad - although the wishy-washy chorus doesn't quite gel with the kinetic energy of the verses. It's from Bruno's second album, Unorthodox Jukebox (love that title), which is out next month. The full track premiere is below.

Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven

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What we did at the Brits (we took badly framed photographs of pop stars on our phones)

Going to the Brits as a journalist is simultaneously brilliant and terrible. You get to see lots of famous people up close (they are all tiny) and you get to ask lots of famous people questions ("Hello will.i.am, how did you celebrate being number one last week?"; "My single didn't go to number one"; "Oh"). But you don't get to see the actual ceremony, and there is no alcohol in the "winners room" - which, by the way, is a makeshift tent in the freezing cold arse end of the O2.

Brilliantly, trained journalists can't be trusted to ask questions to anyone who has won a prize, so all the winners do a generic 90-second interview with Nihal off of Radio One. Nihal is a very nice man with incredibly neat hair, but he does tend to ask stupid things like "which member of the audience would you most like to snog?", which would be hilarious if you weren't trying to get clips for Huw Edwards on the Ten O'Clock News.

Minor grumbles aside, this year's bash turned out pretty well. The right people won the right awards and the whole Adele "incident" basically made a predictable event into a slightly more interesting one. Although if anyone genuinely thinks Adele giving the finger to a bunch of record company executives is a cause for complaint, wait til they find out what's been happening in Syria (Chris Martin told me to say that).

The main things I learned last night are that (a) if you put a picture of One Direction on the BBC's twitter account, people get very animated about it and (b) I am not very good at taking pictures on the red carpet anyway.

Here are some of those pictures, followed by some official Brits videos. I'm not pretending to be in the mood for anything more high maintenance than that.

Ed Sheeran checks to see if his fingernails are clean, shortly before appearing on the NEWS with LIZO MZIMBA

Jessie J turned up in her nightie and talked about weighing melons or something

You can't tell in this picture, but Tinie Tempah had glitter in his beard. I think he may have eaten one of Little Mix by mistake.

Kylie was very concerned about Adele. She said she was worried she'd be too overwhelmed to take the whole night in, then looked down the barrel of the camera and said "Adele, get your mum and dad to press record because you might not remember this night happened. And then you can look back at it in six months time." Ironically, Adele's mum missed the message because she was watching Neighbours.

This picture may have temporarily broken Twitter. Sorry about that.

Coldplay. I took this picture to stop myself doing something I'd regret later.

Adele can basically have my babies (don't worry, they're only jelly babies)

Adele - Rolling In The Deep



Rihanna - We Found Love (in a box)


Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are


If you've stuck around this long, you might want to head over to the BBC News site and read all the coverage we put together from the ceremony...
:: Adele wins, extends finger
:: Quotes and reaction to Adele's big night
:: Will.i.am, Tinie Tempah, Dizzee Rascal, Noel Gallagher & Little Mix on their new albums

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Best bits from the Grammys

It wasn't a perfect night at the Grammys... Aside from the tragic events of Saturday justifiably casting a shadow over the ceremony, almost everyone chose to play the underwhelming fourth single from their latest album. Still, there were a couple of performances worth watching over your Monday morning teabreak and, if the internet police haven't taken them down, these are they.

Adele - Rolling In The Deep
Aside from the a capella intro that said "hello bitches, my voice is all better now", Adele seemed to be exercising more control over those powerhouse vocals. Sounds like she's had some coaching... but that doesn't stop the tingles running up and down your spine for a full four minutes. It's nice to have you back, missus.



Rihanna - We Found Love
"Make some noise for Whitney," screams Rihanna, whose "we found love in a hopeless place" lyric couldn't have been more appropriate given the circumstances.
WARNING: This video also contains Coldplay.



Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - We Take Care Of Our Own
This was the show opener - a huge, string-assisted behemoth. I haven't delved into the lyrics but I'm guessing the jingoistic overtones are delivered with a heavy dose of sarcasm, á la Born In The USA. You can't beat a bit of Bruce, you know.



Bruno Mars - Runaway
This is one of those "why didn't he do Grenade?" moments. The song is nothing to write home about, but Bruno's tribute to the hyperactive funk workouts of James Brown and The JBs is hugely exciting.



Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt - Etta James Tribute
Surprisingly moving, this low-key stroll through the blues was my personal highlight from the night's proceedings.




Taylor Swift - Mean
Taylor Swift is rocking the banjo. You've gotta love a girl who rocks the banjo.

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Someone told Bruno Mars how to get to Sesame Street

This little video of Bruno Mars and the stars of Sesame Street exists in the same universe as Olly Murs' X Factor performance with the Muppets - but is precisely 9,074 times less irritating.

Bruno Mars - Don't Give Up


Doesn't that make you feel a whole lot better?

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Bruno Mars: The Lazy Song

The tune is an Olly Murs / Jack Johnson cod reggae snoozefest, but you can't fault Bruno Mars' new video. Always nice to see a pop star who doesn't take themselves too seriously.

Bruno Mars: The Lazy Song

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The Grammys in four video clips

The Grammys, eh? The world's premiere 14-and-a-half-hour-long award ceremony. Lots of thanking God, interspersed with performances by Muse and a country band you've never heard of. You certainly wouldn't want to sit through them. Unless you were tied to a chair in one of those Saw films and getting up would result in being cut in half with an axegrinder.

Anyway, I've sifted through the haystack to bring you the needles. Mind your fingers.

1) THE LADY GAGA
Came out of an egg, you know. Truly the Kinder Surprise of Pop.

Lady Gaga - Born This Way


2) THE CEE-LO
This is a tribute to Elton John's Muppet Show performance of Crocodile Rock, back in "the day". Gwyneth Paltrow plays Miss Piggy.

Cee-Lo Green + The Muppets - Forget You

3) THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Who deservedly won the Album Of The Year prize for The Suburbs. This performance was essentially their acceptance speech. I think we're supposed to believe it was impromptu and unscripted, but no-one seems the slightest bit flustered.

Arcade Fire - Ready To Start


4) THE B.O.B. AND THE BRUNO MARS AND THE JANELLE MONAE
For my money, this is the standout performance of the night - a soul revue pulled straight from the video for Hey Ya! Bruno Mars steals the show with his terrifying assault on a ride cymbal during Cold War.

B.O.B. / Bruno Mars / Janelle Monae


Inevitably, these videos will all disappear as soon as I hit the publish button. Here's the relevant Google searches in case you need 'em.
Lady Gaga :: Cee-Lo :: Arcade Fire :: Bruno, BOB and Janelle

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Bruno Mars plays his songs: A review

Ladies and gentlemen, here is Bruno Mars, writer of hits, singer of songs, dapper of attire, owner of a quiff. He was born Peter Gene Hernandez, and got his first taste of the limelight at the age of two, when he toured Japan with his father's doo-wop band.

The experience shows.

Launching his album in London's Cafe De Paris (a week after the album went to number one, natch) young Bruno does the soft-shoe shuffle with all the panache of a junior James Brown. His band, The Smeezingtons, pop and sizzle like a tightly regimented bowl of Rice Crispies. And - parents be warned - Bruno's soaring soul voice and baby-faced good looks are enough to spontaneously initiate puberty in teenage girls.

If anything lets him down, then, it's the material. Bruno's reggae-tinged soul can lack the grit of his musical heroes, Michael Jackson and Bob Marley... but when he finds a spark - on space funk jam The Other Side, for example - he generates enough smoke to trigger your musical fire alarm. By the time he wraps up the set with lighters-aloft soul ballad Just The Way You Are, we're in danger of being burnt alive. Metaphorically, you understand.

The gig is fleshed out with a handful of covers - Del Shannon's Runaway ("I wah-wah-wah-wah wonder") and a grinding mash-up of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Billie Jean. They give an alluring glimpse of what this 25-year-old can do with the right material. If he stops giving gems like F**k You and Nothin' On You to other artists, Mr Mars is destined for the stratosphere.

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Bruno Mars 'would catch a grenade for me'

I have lost count of the number of singers who've personally promised they "would die for me" over the last 36 years. But not one of them has ever done it. Not a single one. I'm beginning to think it's just a turn of phrase.

The latest is Bruno Mars, whose new single Grenade, ramps things up by detailing all the gruesome ways he's prepared to be put to death on my behalf. He sounds pretty sincere, but I'm not going to be convinced he really means it until he jams a fork in his leg or chops off a finger.

Bruno Mars - Grenade

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Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are video

I caught Bruno Mars playing a showcase in London last week and was very, very impressed. He has a stunning soul voice, a band that's tighter than lycra, and a collection of songs about things he has seen or experienced.

One of those songs is called Just The Way You Are. It is not a cover of the "don't go changing to try to please me" Billy Joel track, but the sentiment is essentially the same.

Played live, Just The Way You Are is something of an anthem. The Middle 8 has the epic, euphoric air of U2's Pride (In The Name Of Love). On record, it's a bit more subdued - but the animated video is a compact classic.

NB One: Although this video features a man in a hat, it is an Olly Murs free zone.
NB Two: Although Bruno Mars was on Travie McCoy's Billionaire, this song is not bollocks.
NB Three: What I'm trying to say is: 'Do not be afraid'.

Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are

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