Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven
Having previously mined the romantic possibilities of being blown up, shot, stabbed and hit by a train on global smash ‘Grenade’, Bruno Mars returns in slightly cheerier mood with ‘Locked Out of Heaven’. The opening single from his forthcoming album ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’, it bounces along with chopping guitars, elastic bass and a vocal line that stays firmly in the higher register. Perhaps surprisingly for an artist of Bruno’s age, it seems more than a little influenced by 80’s trio The Police.
While most people would smack you in the face if you suggested they had any connection with lute-strumming tantra-bore Sting, Bruno welcomes the comparisons.
“Hell yeah! You try to write a Police song!” he told Capital FM. “I grew up listening to The Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.
“I remember performing a song like ‘Roxanne’, and you play those first couple of chords and you hit that first note, and you watch the whole bar ignite. As an artist, as a songwriter, it’s like ‘Man, I want to write a song that makes people’s eyes explode the first chord’.”
The threat of ocular annihilation notwithstanding, ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ is a pleasingly sprightly number that bodes well for the soon to be released album. It’ll have its work cut out if it’s to match the success of debut ‘Doo-Wops & Hooligans’. As well as snagging platinum status in the US and hit the top spot in Germany, proving that – alongside its love of organisation and meat products – the country is also a fan of Hawaiian dudes who like to wear spiffy hats.
