Love Silk Sonic? Here Are Six More Instant-Vintage Throwback Albums
variety.comJem Aswad Senior Music EditorThrowback songs, evoking a certain musical style or era, have been a hallmark of pop music for as long as there’s been pop music to throw back to.
It’s a very specific art form: It must be a great song as well as a nostalgia trip for those who remember, and a vicarious saunter through a previous decade for those who don’t.
Songs ranging from Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and Lenny Kravitz’s “It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over” (both nods to early ’70s R&B) to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” (early aughts pop-punk) are all stellar examples of the art.The throwback album — which must consist entirely of songs deliberately written and performed to evoke a certain style or era, not just covers album or the soundtrack to a film parody like the 1984 heavy metal spoof “This Is Spinal Tap” or Chris Rock’s silver-screen debut, the 1993 hip-hop satire “CB4” — is a monumentally more difficult thing to pull off, and much more rare.
Silk Sonic’s “An Evening With Silk Sonic” is an absolutely stellar throwback album that shows how deeply the group’s leaders, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, love and respect the R&B of the early-to-mid 1970s, even though that music is ten years older than both of them.
Read more on variety.com
