hot take about the romantic
i don’t know if i actually love the romantic as much as i convince myself i do.
i listen to it almost every day, i know all the lyrics to every song, i have no skips and i enjoy listening to it. but deep down, i know i’m disappointed with it.
i think part of me just really wants to love it because it’s bruno’s first solo album in a decade. we waited ten years for this, but at the same time, i think i was expecting more.
don’t get me wrong, i genuinely think risk it all and dance with me are two of the best songs he’s ever made. when i first heard risk it all, i almost cried. i don’t even know if i was being dramatic because it was the first song on the album and i was finally hearing solo bruno music again after 10 years, but something about it just hit me. his voice, the production, the lyrics, everything. i genuinely felt something.
i had a similar reaction to dance with me. those are the two songs where i can really feel something behind them. i can almost hear how much time and emotion went into making them. obviously i know he took his time with the entire album, because he’s bruno mars and he’s a perfectionist, but those two songs just feel different to me.
why you wanna fight is also one of my favorites, so those are easily my top three.
but when i look at the album as a whole, i think my biggest issue is actually the lyrics. i feel like bruno could have done so much better lyrically. some of the songs feel kind of soulless compared to what i know bruno is capable of.
and that’s also why i sometimes get this weird feeling that the romantic is kind of a “here, damn” album ( i don’t literally think that’s what happened), but that’s just the feeling i get sometimes when i listen to it.
i really want to know what you guys think. maybe i’m being way too harsh, maybe my expectations were just too high, or maybe some of you feel exactly the same way. do you genuinely LOVE this album or do you also feel like something is missing?