Uptown Special - Mark Ronson

The first real track on Uptown Special is called Summer Breaking - it's the mellow groove sound that Stevie Wonder was the king of in his 70s heyday (and who also appears on the album's intro and outro). It highlights the main enigma of Mark Ronson: is he a commercial artist working with big names whose music only appears weird in comparison to the usual radio garb, or, is he one of us superfreaks who's managed to hit it big time? 

Uptown Special makes a case for the latter. Lead single Uptown Funk may lead you to think Ronson's interest in the 70s is in a world of flash and style that never quite existed (at least not outside of Michael Jackson music videos) but the rest of the album's 70s obsession - and Uptown Special is the most adoring love letter I've listened to in a long time - is in the weirder, sleazier side of funk. Some moments are downright psychedelic, others are dance-ready disco pop. The best tracks, like In Case of Fire, are perfect combinations of the two.

There's no other obvious single-ready tracks, and some drag: Heavy and Rolling matches its name, weighed down by a quirky beat and attempts at psychedelic poetry. All add to the feeling though, of sitting in a calm, chilled lounge, with some approachable folks, possibly a few hallucinogenic in the system, although never too many to not bust a move. Lyrics add to the vibe, talking about "Pulling your top down/In the back of some pretty boy's ride" and telling you to "Jump out the window/A human cannonball... Congratulations, baby". 

Which is all ignoring Ronson's work as a technical whizz kid. Seeing the man behind the scenes orchestrating an album, and the usual headliners among his instruments, while not new, is still different from most albums. Ronson is the most mainstream in terms of success in this genre, although far weirder and more ambitious than the sum of his parts, his guests included. In a music industry where the money makers are ambition-less and the critically claimed don't know how to groove it, a crossover like Ronson is surely someone to savour.