Paak - have taken the concept to a whole new realm with “An Evening With Silk Sonic,” a wink-laden blast of early ’70s soul that they’ve launched like a contemporary project, complete with a smash debut single, “Leave the Door Open” (performed at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, it went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 in April).Īnyone who knows or loves early 1970s R&B will have a goofy grin on their face throughout this entire album, which plays out like an awesome game of spot-the-reference: You’ll find nods to songs like “Jungle Boogie,” “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster” groups like the O’Jays, the Chi-Lites, the Sty- listics, the Ohio Players, the Gap Band and Kool & the Gang angelic backing vocals, ludicrously lush strings and horns, baby-I’m-down-on-my-knees testifying wacka-wacka guitars and tinkling glockenspiels. The throwback album is a monumentally more difficult thing to pull off: The artist has to follow the above guidelines for a standard album’s length without the conceit - which is hard enough to get away with for the length of a song - growing, well, old.Īll of which is a long-winded way of leading up to the fact that Silk Sonic - aka multiplatinum pop-R&B singer Bruno Mars and rapper Anderson.