Late Night Feelings - Mark Ronson: Review
Is a veteran music industry producer who has worked with a number of different artists across a myriad of genres for nearly 20 years. In that time he has developed numerous strong connections across the industry while only releasing three true studio records. Late Night Feelings, his fourth record arrives on the back of a string of critically acclaimed singles with a number of high profile features.
Review By Lavender:
I have never really been a fan of a Mark Ronson record before, while maybe you can count on a single or two to be decent or at least some solid hits, for the most part I paid much more attention to his name when it wasn't as the primary artist. I was hoping after a span of collectively good singles that this woult no longer be the case on Late Night Feelings. I'm happy to report that while the album isn't perfect it's the most complete Mark Ronson experience yet.
The a;bum had a number of singles making sure that half of its 13 tracks had become familiar by the time the full record arrived. This is where a lot of the albums best tunes come from starting with the Miley Cyrus featuring Nothing Breaks Like A Heart that dropped last year. The song is a pop-country fusion that sees Miley shining over a number of sharply written refrains that have been rewarding over and over again for the months this single has been out. The title track Late Night Feelings was another single that I liked quite a bit and it gets this album started after a brief intro instrumental. The song is a distant ballad that features a killer performance from Lykke Li who does dominate the instrumental but in a way that makes it seem supportive of her rather than just mere background noise.
The final two singles I liked quite a bit were Find U Again with Camila Cabello and True Blue with Angel Olsen. The former sees Camila singing with a swagger and confidence that I'm not used to hearing from her and showing up some veteran pop girls across this record with her excellent performance. While the instrumental is like many on this record and taking more of a backgound approach this one still does a decent job of not distracting and mostly supporting. The real gem among the singles was clearly True Blue which features a surprise appearance from Angel Olsen. Angel absolutely kills this track with a performance that sees her working up from a very soft ans dramatic poise in its beginning all the way to a huge climactic finale that highlights her amazing talent as a vocalist and the wonderful songwriting of the track which stands out as one of the albums most fulfilling moments.
Thankfully there are some moments on this record that I enjoyed quite a lot alongside these singles. When You Went Away is the third in a trilogy of songs featuring Yebba and the only one I really liked given its short runtime and dramatic performance. The instrumental here is pretty compelling and helps maintain the songs energy through the just under two minute length it occupies. Truth is a much more R&B flavored track that features Alicia Keys channeling what Janelle Monae did on her album last year and doing it quite well. The song sounds young and fresh in a very saturated world of R&B favored pop music. Finally Why Hide was a surprise that saw Dianne Gordon delivering a performance I enjoyed quite a bit on a dramatic ballad with one of the busier and more substantial instrumentals you'll hear on the record.
There were two more singles for this album that didn't leave me quite as pleased. Pieces Of Us features King Princess and tries to pull off a funky kind of pop sound the incredibly nondescript features and mild pace make the song way more forgettable than it needs to be and ultimately I'm just not excited by the song at all, especially as a single. Don't Leave Me Lonely features Yebba and has the same issues as the other Yebba song on here Knock Knock Knock that sees her delivering some lifeless performances over some wandering and airy instrumentals that never really hold onto anything and simply take up time on the record.
The song also unfortunately closes on a very rough passage with 2 AM a song that just feels like a less well version of the single that features Lykke Li and feels completely unnecessary to tack on at the end of the album. Finally Spinning is one of the most boring tracks here with an undersung vocal performance and no reason to end up being the closing song to the record.
On Late Night Feelings Mark Ronson mostly plays a supportive role and the quality of these tracks lie often in the performance of their features. Despite this Ronson does a pretty good job of giving consistent opportunities for his featured artists to shine and keeps a sonic theme together better than on any of his previous records. While this hasn't changed the way I view Mark Ronson singles of production it is refreshing to be satisfied with one of his full length releases for the first time really ever. 6/10
