By Ryan Reed, Althea Legaspi for Rolling Stone Magazine.
Bruno Mars has announced his forthcoming LP, 24K Magic (on the album coverit’s written in Roman numerals as XXIVk Magic) and he has released the title track as its first single along with its accompanying video. The album will be released on November 18th via Atlantic Records and the song is currentlyavailable via iTunes.
The disco-funk song celebrates glitz and glamour, beginning with a private jet landing in Las Vegas where Mars hangs with his posse, dancing to the groove while a bevy of bikini-clad dancers join him poolside. “I’m a dangerous man with some money in my pocket,” he warns, but the song is more of a party with “24 karat magic in the air” both serving as the chorus and the vibe of the feel-good clip, which was directed by longtime collaborator Cameron Duddy and Mars himself.
“Excited to announce 24k Magic, out this Friday!!” Mars teased Monday onInstagram. “You can call it my first single, but I call it the invitation to the party.”
24K Magic follows Mars’ breakout second LP, Unorthodox Jukebox, which peaked at Number One at on the Billboard 200, spawning hit singles like “Locked Out of Heaven,” “Treasure” and “When I Was Your Man.”
In the four-year interim since Jukebox, Mars co-wrote, co-produced and sang on Mark Ronson’s 2015 smash “Uptown Funk,” which became the year’s biggest single with 14 weeks at Number One. He also co-wrote and co-produced Adele’s 25 track “All I Ask” (which managed to crack the Billboard charts, despite not being issued as an official single) and performed at both the 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl Half Time shows.
“I’m actually working with Bruno Mars right now,” Skrillex told Billboard in June. “I’m not going to give specifics of what it sounds like, but what we’re doing is so fucking different, awesome and next level and sounds like nothing else that’s happened before. Every time I get in the studio with somebody else and collaborate, that’s when I always have revelations and learn about stuff. And I just love stepping outside of what I know and there’s no other music position that can do that.”
“We’ve been working on it for about a year, trying different ideas and experimenting,” Mars’ longtime bassist Jamareo Artis told Bass Player in September. “I don’t know what’s going to be included in the final version, but it’s going to have a new sound, and so far the material is very groove-oriented. It’ll be out sometime this year, and then we’ll hit the road again.”
The singer will head to Saturday Night Live for his fourth appearance on October 15th.
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