If you love 'An Evening with Silk Sonic,' here's what to listen to next
Allow them to reintroduce themselves: They are Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, two powerhouse musical polymaths whose faces and fingerprints are all over the past decade of pop, hip-hop and R&B. But as of today, you can officially call them by the name on the cover of their collaborative debut, An Evening with Silk Sonic.
From the first whispery crescendo of "," the single that announced Silk Sonic's existence back in March, listeners knew), .Paak writes and performs with an easy fluency in both '60s and '70s funk and soul sides and the '90s rap records that sampled them, the combined effect evoking a swirling timelessness. And you can roughly track the phases of Mars' superstar ascent by how he's dressed for his countless awards-show performances: Cross Colours for new jack swing, shoulder pads for Minneapolis-sound pastiche, cocky cosplay for Little Richard and Prince tributes. Their joyous cribbing hasn't gone without scrutiny, but it has always been an open book.
