Doo-Wops & Hooligans by Bruno Mars
Doo-Wops & Hooligans is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, released on October 4, 2010. Mars' writing and production team The Smeezingtons were credited with writing all songs and serve as the album's executive producers. The album's title refers to doo-wop music and was chosen to reflect simplicity, as well as appeal to both males and females. Two digital singles—"Liquor Store Blues" featuring Damian Marley and "Grenade"—were released to promote the album. Lead single "Just the Way You Are" was released on July 19, 2010, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks, going on to become an international top ten hit. "Grenade" was later announced as the second single, and has charted in the top ten in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, as well as becoming his second consecutive number one in the US and UK. "The Lazy Song" was released as the third official single from the album in Spring 2011, peaking at #4 on the Hot 100 and becoming his third consecutive number one single in the UK as a solo artist. Doo-Wops & Hooligans charted at number three on the Billboard 200 and in the top ten of music charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The album received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics. The usage of a wide variety of influences was noted by critics, with musical comparisons made to Michael Jackson, Jason Mraz and Little Richard. The album received a total of seven nominations for the Grammy Awards in 2011 and 2012 including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. Mars embarked on a US headlining tour throughout November and December 2010 to promote the album. Doo-Wops & Hooligans was announced the third biggest-selling album of 2011 in the UK, selling approximately 1,214,420 copies. Worldwide the album has sold over 6 million copies.
The early 2010s were a time when the veils between genres—pop, R&B, rock, dance music, even reggae—were delightfully thin. Coldplay teamed up with Rihanna, who in turn collaborated with Britney Spears (and Slash, too). Meanwhile, Maroon 5 embraced electro-pop and Adele carried the torch for timeless soul. But perhaps no star embodied the zeitgeist more thoroughly—or audaciously—than Bruno Mars, whose 2010 debut, <i>Doo-Wops & Hooligans</i>, became a breakout hit thanks to a panoramic sound that, if it doesn’t encompass every genre under the sun, surely sounds like it. Despite the hook-filled <i>Doo-Wops & Hooligans</i> representing his first stab at recording a full-length album, Mars was no novice when it came to busting down walls between genres. The versatile child-entertainer-turned-in-demand-songwriter had already racked up composer credits for artists as diverse as Brandy, Natasha Bedingfield and Cobra Starship before he and his production team, The Smeezingtons, started constructing the ambitious album, including a lead single, “Just the Way You Are”, that alone took months to hone. All the hard work paid off. The song’s effortless blend of puppy-love innocence, funky syncopation and a Coldplay-style chorus helped it become one of the biggest hits of 2010, eventually netting Mars a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Both “Talking to the Moon” and “Marry You” reach similarly soaring heights, showing Mars’ facility as a straight-ahead rocker with an ear for melody. But as the delicious slice of lovers rock “Our First Time” and the soul-folk gem “The Other Side” demonstrate, he's far too curious musically to stick to a single genre, a quality that would steer his subsequent solo releases as well as his work with Silk Sonic, his lush and dreamy supergroup with Anderson .Paak. Mars’ nostalgic streak—the Hawaii native grew up playing oldies, after all—is yet another key flavour in <i>Doo-Wops & Hooligans</i>. But instead of taking centre stage, as it would on 2012’s <i>Unorthodox Jukebox</i> (an album that unfolds like a turbo-charged crash course in pop-music appreciation 101), Mars deploys his love of vintage sounds strategically. There’s the old-school R&B swing fuelling “Runaway Baby” and the Beatles-esque melody threaded through the romantic ditty “Count on Me”. Moreover, his voice consistently reveals inflections learned from spinning <i>Thriller</i> over and over. Ultimately, though, Mars isn’t time travelling on <i>Doo-Wops & Hooligans</i> so much as scattering Easter eggs to let listeners know his knowledge of music history is deep and wide.
