Silk Sonic - an evening with silk sonic

By Audrey Herrin

The singles “Leave the Door Open” and “Skate” may have already been out long enough for all of us to be sick of listening to them on repeat in consolation for the long wait for this album; but on November 12th, it finally dropped. An Evening with Silk Sonic is the debut album from the collaboration between Bruno Mars (who has not released an album since 2016) and Anderson .Paak. 

The album opens with a short intro introducing the ‘host’ of the show: 70’s funk musician Bootsy Collins, who delivers a spoken monologue naming the band “Silk Sonic”. The ladies and gentlemen in the audience are addressed, setting the atmosphere for the album and welcoming us listeners to the auditory experience of the album as though we are attending a live performance.

“Leave the Door Open” is perfect as the first full-length track of the album; a smooth, dreamy number in which Mars and Paak seduce an imaginary woman by crooning about their giant mansion in which all forms of luxury and indulgence await her. This song is like the musical equivalent of one of those ads for chocolate that tries to seduce you into treating yourself, indulging and taking a bite. It pulls the listener into the decadent world of Silk Sonic, setting the mood for the rest of the album.

The next track is a little more energetic, with Paak’s rapping taking the lead. “Fly as Me” is a track to strut to, as Paak raps about how he’s so fly and the woman he’s after is fly too, so they should definitely hook up. The repeated use of the term ‘fly’ might call to mind an earlier Bruno Mars feature on “Wake up in the Sky” by Gucci Mane, in which Mars sings repeatedly “you can’t tell me I ain’t fly / I know I’m super fly.” However, the charisma dripping from the vocal performances and instrumentation on “Fly as Me” do a far better job of convincing me of this fact.

“After Last Night” is a dreamy, retro love song. It opens with a dialogue narrating a story about a magical night full of sexy-times between a man and a woman who now realize they have romantic feelings for each other. Now the singer wants to treat her to the good life and give her “cars, clothes, diamonds, gold.” However, both his feelings and his wallet-emptying come back to bite him in the next song.

The follow-up track to “After Last Night” is “Smokin’ Out the Window”, its antithesis. The sound of this track is equally smooth and sultry, but the lyrics are bitter and angsty. The singer regrets spending so much money on the lady, only to find out that she was unfaithful. “I thought that girl belonged to only me” he laments, “but I was wrong / ‘cause she belong / to everybody”, subtly accusing her of being a slut without explicitly saying it. This song centers around the image of the singer engaging in the introspective act of smoking out of an open window, which is a common enough trope that it invokes a vivid scene in the imagination. The song is rescued from cheesiness by the lyrics being self-aware of the melodramatic theme of the song. “Not to be dramatic,” Paak sings ironically on this track, “but I wanna die.”

The next track, “Put on a Smile”, continues the melodrama. With the spoken intro by Collins and the thunder/rain sound-effects, it invokes another trope from retro music videos in which the artist sings dramatically in the rain about his heartbreak. The transition from this track to the next one, “777”, is abrupt to say the least, since “777” is closer in mood to “Fly as Me”, with the vocalists celebrating their own decadence. This stylish track is about gambling in Vegas and winning big, and there really isn’t much more to take away from it.

“Skate” was the second single that was released for this album after “Leave the Door Open”, and it is a catchy, feel-good love song.This song edges over somewhat into the realm of cheesiness, but it has enough groove and charisma to make up for it. However, avoid listening to this song too many times on repeat as I have done; it gets old and loses its charm fairly quickly. I am afraid this song will be run-ragged on pop stations and personally if I have to listen to this song one more time (to quote Anderson .Paak) “not to be dramatic” but I would rather die.

The closing track on this album takes a turn for the psychedelic, the lyrics describing the sensation of the effects of hallucinogenic drugs kicking in. It takes on a double-meaning, as the artists say goodbye to their audience and goodbye to the plane of sober reality. They promise that the party isn’t over, it’s just moving “up and beyond” where everyone can “dance all night on Saturn’s ring”. The album slowly fades out with a trippy, reverb-filled soundscape and concludes with another brief dialogue by Collins, who sends the listeners “love from up above”. 

Lyrically, some of these songs do not stand out all that much, and you won’t find anything all that deep or groundbreaking, but they are cleverly self-aware of the clichés and tropes by which they are influenced. The lyrics work in tandem with the sound and performance of this album to successfully create a whole atmosphere for the listeners, making us feel as though we are really spending an evening with Silk Sonic, swaying to their music in the audience.

Inspired by 60s and 70s soul and funk sounds, Silk Sonic re-unites modern listeners with a retro sound and aesthetic, creating a 70s lounge performance atmosphere. The themes of this album center around luxury, wealth, and indulgence. The fantasy the album creates is materialistic (I counted at least four references to different luxury car brands), decadent, and mildly misogynistic at times; but it is an irresistible fantasy in which to indulge.