Listening to: An Evening with Silk Sonic
Genre: R&B
Year: 2021
We’re back at it again! I finally had time to release one of these again and instead of beating myself up, I’ll just let myself indulge in the fact that I did not pressure myself to make one the entire time. I told myself I can’t make one due to life circumstances, but it’s only a matter of time before I get back to it.
And back we are! Today’s album was one of the first albums that I got into while brooding as a young audiophile. This is the duo of one of the biggest names in pop and the most underrated R&B artist of the 2010s, namely Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Now everyone should already be aware on who Bruno Mars is. He’s a platinum artist who’s released so many bangers and defined the 2010s, afterall. But .Paak is an interesting case as he’s been in the game for quite some time, yet hasn’t really blown up in the mainstream. I personally found out about him through NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts and his amazing performance with the Free Nationals. It was so good that I ended up binging his album trio, Malibu, Oxnard and Ventura. And binge it I did as .Paak slowly became one of my top listens in last.fm.
But we’re not here just to talk about .Paak, although we will definitely talk about him in the future. We’re here to talk about their bombastic duo under the name of Silk Sonic. Their debut album, An Evening With Silk Sonic is what I can only describe as a silky smooth fabric as you tuck yourself into sleep under the cold AC. It’s smooth, it’s groovy and you’ll get a nice rest right after. Believe me, I’ve slept to this album so many times!
But that doesn’t mean it’s boring, not at all. This takes inspiration to many iconic 80s pop, funk and R&B cliques that you might think that this album was taken straight from the 80s (although that is definitely true for one of the tracks.) But nope, 2021. Peak of the pandemic and still bringing in the heat!
I know I’ve said this a lot, but the tracks on this record flows so perfectly with each other. And I really mean it here as the 33 minutes (36 with the added Love’s Train) felt like an entire experience, not some compilation of songs. From the intro giving us a taste of what’s to come all the way to Blast Off, you’ll experience the audio equivalent of getting high on love.
Many bangers came out of this record like Leave The Door Open being their starter single, or the hilarious Smokin Out The Window and it’s music video. But my absolute favorite track here is After Last Night which features the venerable and bombastic Thundercat on the bass as well as Bootsy Collins who apparently named Silk Sonic. This track is just absolutely insane with how good it is. I cannot even put into words just how perfect the harmony between Bruno and .Paak’s vocals with Thundercat’s bass and the perfect drums in the back. It’s so good and you need to listen to it if you haven’t.
And speaking of, an interesting thing about this album is that it only came with 9 tracks on release. But sometime in 2022, they added their own rendition of Love’s Track by Con Funk Shun. Least to say, it added that extra retro flair by actually including a cover for a song in 1982.
This album is fantastic. I really mean it. This not only slowly shaped my love for R&B and retro pop, but also cemented my love for the song writing and musical prowess of Mars and .Paak. I seriously don’t know what my tastes in music would’ve been like if I hadn’t listened to Leave The Door open all those years ago.
My total absolutely unbiased scoring:
Vibe: 10/10
Flow: 10/10
Mixing: 7/10
Complexity: 3/10
Consistency: 9/10
Emotional Factor: 8/10
Replayability: 10/10
Fave Track:
After Last Night
Gears Used:
Simgot EW100P
HiBy R3 II
Das it, das music
