Bruno Mars' first solo album chart in 10 years "overwhelming" The inheritance reviewer's response is mixed

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Bruno Mars' first solo album in 10 years, "The Romantic"

Superstar Bruno Mars, who returned with a solo album after a decade, is expected to perform overwhelmingly on the charts starting next week, and has received mixed reviews among critics regarding his musical perfection. Positive reviews and harsh criticism seem to be on the line.

Bruno Mars released his fourth solo studio album "The Romantic" on February 27. It is the first solo return in about 10 years since "24K Magic" in 2016, and the nine-track album brought soul and retro pop sound to the forefront in the 1970s.

Charts Expect 'Done-in-One'...Pre-release single Hot 100 1st place debut

The pre-released single "I Just Might" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Jan. 24. It is the 10th song in Bruno Mars' career and the top of the Hot 100 at the same time as his first debut. After Drake, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, he became the fourth solo male artist to top the Hot 100 more than 10 times. It ranked first in a total of 11 countries, including the U.S., and also entered the top 10 in the U.K. The new album is also likely to top the Billboard 200.

Unlike the chart, the reaction of the commentary community was mixed. Metacritic, which aggregates the overall score, recorded 66 points (favorable), and there was a clear temperature difference for each medium.

On the receiving end, Rolling Stone gave four stars out of five. Critic John Dolan positively evaluated the homage to soul and Latin music in the 70s, saying, "It is a retro soul showmanship that conveys exactly what the public wants." AllMusic and NME also gave four stars each, and praised them for their high-quality pop albums.

On the other hand, the voices of those who criticized him were not easy. The British Guardian gave two stars out of five, pointing out that "it plays beautifully, but there are no new ideas." Critic Alexis Petridis directly criticized the title of the review article, saying, "It's better to listen to the original song that he explicitly copied," and criticized the traces of 20th-century masterpieces such as Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" and Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va."

Pitchfork, a music magazine, scored 5.8 out of 10 and criticized that "safe choices that do not take risks sound like existing famous songs," and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cited the excess of monotonous ballads as a problem in a review titled "Polish Without Purpose."

The common critical keywords are 'imitation' and 'safe choice'. It seems clear that this album is for fans, given that even favorable media heard it based on completeness rather than innovation.

During his solo hiatus, Bruno Mars solidified his status as a legendary musician beyond a superstar with a stellar collaboration. He formed Anderson Pack and Silk Sonic to release his 2021 album "An Evening with Silk Sonic," leaving big hits such as Leave The Door Open. The single "Die With a Smile," released in 2024 with Lady Gaga, was recorded as the fastest song to top 1 billion streams in Spotify's history and topped the Billboard Global 200 chart for 18 weeks.

In addition, "APT," which collaborated with ROSé, was named the world's most sold single in 2025 by IFPI, and was named the world's most streamed song in 2025 by Apple Music. The song topped the Billboard Global (excluding the U.S.) chart for 19 weeks, the Billboard Global 200 chart for 12 weeks, and won the "Song of the Year" at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards. In addition, he was nominated for "Song of the Year", "Record of the Year", and "Best Pop Duo/Group Performance" at the 68th Grammy Awards.

With a series of such big collaborations, fans' thirst for a solo album deepened, and after waiting, "The Romantic" finally arrived.

Coincidentally, another point to watch is that Black Pink, which belongs to Rosé, who became her best friend with "APT," released her third mini-album "Deadline" on the same day. Bruno Mars' "The Romantic" and Black Pink's "Deadline" are expected to compete in good faith for the top spot on the Billboard 200 and the UK's official album charts.

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*This content was translated by AI.