Having heard little bits of Hawaiian-born American singer Bruno Mars here and there on Youtube (enough to remember him), I saw this in the supermarket today and took a gamble on it. Glad I did! ... It's not my usual thing (I'm more into Ska, Rock and Indie), but I took an instant warm to "Doo-Wops and Hooligans".
I suppose, given his LA/Hawaii roots, his musical style is somewhat understandable: from the first track, my room filled with an uplifting (and stylish) mixture of breezy, summery pop (lightly influenced by cool, urban reggae -- though it's more pop than anything). Bruno's soft (lightly falsetto) voice is perfectly matched with his cool-beats and Caribbean-toned music. It feels like you should be listening to this on a hammock with a glass of coconut juice and crashing waves beside you ))
The songs are a blissful mixture of sunny romantic ballads and lazy chillout tracks. Personal highlights, are the addictive opener "Grenade" the appropriately titled (and infectiously inspirational) toe-tapper "The Lazy Song" ("Today I don't feel like doing any-thing...") and the moving "Count on Me". That said, though, there isn't any really any filler on the album: due to the style it's just perfect for kicking off your shoes and lying down with a of cuppa ))! My only ("slight") niggle, is that track 2 "Just The Way You Are" sounds very similar to Alicia Keys "Doesn't Mean Anything" (Element of Freedom). So close as to be little more than a complete rip-off!....(Search out the mash-ups online, they fit almost perfectly!)
Quibble aside you can't really go wrong with this album. If you like lazy, chilled-out, uplifting music go out and get it -- it's the perfect tonic for all those blue, wintry days.