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Jan 13, 2015Without sacrificing authenticity, Ronson has created an accessible, pop-friendly, and undeniably sexy collection of funk and R&B.
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Jan 27, 2015Ronson’s Uptown Special is his best work yet and one of the best funk albums you’ll come across in recent memory.
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Jan 8, 2015The cumulative effect of Special's contagious cool will keep hands up and bad vibes down--and if all else fails, just put "Feel Right" on repeat.
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Jan 26, 2015Throughout the album Ronson plays the role of puppet master to an impressive collection of musical talent.
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Jan 21, 2015Despite the production and star power, no one element outstrips the others, except perhaps for Mystikal, who continues his reinvention as James Brown's heir apparent on the raunchy Feel Right.
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Jan 21, 2015This album comes with a strong sense of fantasy: authors can be rock stars, “unknowns” can become known and Stevie Wonder is right over there. What is solid, however, is Ronson’s ability to throw a swell party.
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Jan 20, 2015Rarely entering the realm of pastiche, in all, this makes for a brilliant, ageless album.
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Jan 15, 2015The one thing noticeable by its absence from Uptown Special is anything that resembles the music that made Mark Ronson famous, which is doubtless the point.... Ronson has attempted to escape it before, but never quite as confidently as he does on Uptown Special.
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Jan 13, 2015Uptown Special sounds like a true labor of love; it’s also a sinful amount of fun and unabashed in its pursuit of a good time.
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Jan 12, 2015Uptown Special veers wildly from high to low brow, stupid to sophisticated. Occasionally the mix jars but mostly it’s a compelling collision, falling somewhere between a chin-stroking jazz poetry recital and a riotous teenage disco.
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Q MagazineJan 8, 2015It's quite a feat to produce music that works for the mind and the hips, but Ronson has pulled it off magnificently, with virtually every track sounding like a single. [Feb 2015, p.104]
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Jan 14, 2015Uptown Special’s greatest attribute, then, is that it could have been a hit in any decade, a slyly running commentary on the fluidity of modern pop music but one that never fails to forget what the people really want: to dance, dumb and delirious, and forget.
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Jan 13, 2015[Ronson] crafts solid, instantly catchy pop songs, the kind that strive for an everyman universality while acknowledging a rich past of soul-inspired pop music.
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Feb 26, 2015For all the technical charm that Ronson is able to pull off on this album, a lyrically nimble one with the employment of Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon, it never reaches sexy.
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Jan 21, 2015Neatly tied together by opening and closing cuts that include Stevie Wonder on harmonica, because Ronson could swing it, Uptown Special is another nostalgic fantasy that provides light entertainment and provokes backtracking.
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Jan 20, 2015Uptown Special is Ronson’s moment of absolution: you can try to hate it, but in the end, as with all the best pop music, resistance is futile.
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Jan 20, 2015There’s plenty to enjoy in Uptown Special, even if there are some tracks that end up sounding insubstantial and a bit unsatisfying. If you’re looking for a party album, there are songs on here that will sound fresh for the rest of the year and beyond.
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Jan 16, 2015Ronson and company created an album that’s accessible by all, a little bit of everything that everyone wants to hear.
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Jan 14, 2015Stax-style guitar figures and bass walks undergird most of the songs, yet Chabon's peculiar imagery and Ronson's use of the occasional drum machine and synthesizer keep Uptown Special from sounding either like an earnestly literary concept album or a kitschy imitation of Ronson's favorite records from the not so distant past.
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Jan 13, 2015Uptown Special is unapologetic in revelling in its musical influences and ultimately represents a light and mainstream-friendly primer to funk and soul.
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Jan 13, 2015This LP moves on to Seventies and Eighties funk, with more sharp casting.
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Jan 23, 2015Uptown Special exhibits a long-playing cohesion missing from his prior output. The sense of free-wheeling fun, however, is largely absent with the exception of the record’s funky A-side trifecta.
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UncutFeb 3, 2015Novelist Michael Chabon's lyrics fail to illuminate the theme, while the music settles for tasteful reverence. [Mar 2015, p.81]
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Jan 21, 2015Too top-heavy to sustain its momentum, yet too fleeting for its thematic framework to cohere, Uptown Special is that rare beast: a concept album that actually could use more fat.
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Jan 20, 2015The more you play it, though, the more this deranged ensemble piece holds together. And the more you respect Ronson--no individual genius, perhaps, but a tunesmith/conductor of breadth and depth.
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Jan 14, 2015As is, Uptown Special plays a little like a Spotify playlist on random--fun, and unexpectedly thrilling at times, but jarring and never totally satisfying.
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Jan 12, 2015“Uptown Funk” turns out to be one of the only lazy tracks on Ronson’s fourth album. Yes, the other songs obsess on the past, but most enliven it. Better, some revive a quirk of history others overlooked.
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Jan 12, 2015An album of fresh pleasures is the pay-off, but don’t come looking to it for substance.
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Jan 30, 2015When it comes to Uptown Special, Ronson put so much effort into polishing the crown jewel that he let the rest of the album tarnish.
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Jan 23, 2015Uptown Special isn’t quite special enough.
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Feb 24, 2015Somehow, because Uptown Funk is so, so good, Uptown Special is even more disappointing.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 55 out of 85
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Mixed: 11 out of 85
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Negative: 19 out of 85
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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 2, 2015
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Jan 17, 2015