Still, I regret Mars’ continued popularity, as this song is hardly worth the legions of silk-voiced Eunuchs who have taken the mainstream music industry by storm (or in their case, by pleasant drizzle).
So while I hesitate to call a song with such dull verses beautiful, it is fun - vapid, inane fun, much like the girl in the official music video who is impressed by an unraveling audio tape. Most striking to me, though, is the beat beneath it all, driving it and compelling it never to stagnate, not for one second. Mars knows the value of building up and falling down in succession so the song, literally a three-chord tune, by my count, has peaks and valleys that so many others miss.
I’m already partial to piano-centric songs, but it’s the additional sounds - that ethereal whistling in the chorus, the chimes near the end, the vocal harmonies entering and leaving at the opportune moments - that give this one its shape. Of course, vanilla lyrics do not a good or even tolerable song make, so what, then, of the music? Well, basically, it works it’s well constructed in every way. Mars finds the middle ground, which is bland but not offensive to my sensibilities as an English speaker, and frankly, that’s all I ask. (Actually, go ahead and check out Train’s second recent single, “If It’s Love,” for a crash course on how not to use figurative language ever - why did these guys come back again?) Alternatively, Mars doesn’t oversimplify things, either for that, see Usher’s “OMG,” a song for which actual words were too sophisticated to be included in the title. The chief downfall with “Hey, Soul Sister” is its experimentation with semi-complex lyrics, resulting in nonsensical descriptions (“I’m so thug”) and weirdly specific metaphors (“the front lobe of my left side brains”). Importantly, Mars does not overexert himself.
For me, something subtle and something crucial separates it from, say, “Hey, Soul Sister” or “Find Your Love,” or any number of the second-person romance ballads that seem to follow each other through the charts. But as far as I’m concerned, it hits all the right sappy, derivative, dainty-flowery notes. “Just The Way You Are” is sappy, derivative, and tender in a way that manly men shouldn’t even comprehend, least of all enjoy if this song is the sole reason why my gym has stopped playing the popular music station, I wouldn’t be surprised. Bruno Mars, who is on top of the world right now (I could make a planet-inspired pun here, but I’ll leave that to you.) And Bruno Mars, who has finally thawed my icy cold heart with his seductive coos and his feminine charms. Bruno Mars, whose stage name alludes to the manliest of Roman gods but whose voice escapes all influence of the testicles. In part two of this blog’s ongoing analysis of songs with titles reminiscent of Billy Joel’s repertoire, I present “Just The Way You Are,” courtesy of the man-of-the-year himself, Bruno Mars.Īh, Bruno Mars.
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