As one of those rare producers who become visible stars, Mark Ronson is constantly setting high expectations. In 2006 he made waves as the producer behind Amy Winehouse’s Grammy-winning Back to Black, and his last LP, 2007’s Version, rose to both critical and commercial success. With Record Collection he reveals the one adjective that may best describe him as an artist: smart.
This is a smart album in a lot of senses. It’s smart in its selection of guest artists, ranging from Q-Tip and Ghostface Killah to '80s icons like Simon LeBon of Duran Duran and Boy George; it’s also smart in its construction, presenting some of its most melancholy songs — “Somebody to Love Me” and “You Gave Me Nothing” — in the first half of the album, reworking the party-then-aftermath trajectory of the typical dance-pop release. But mostly it’s smart in its self-awareness as a “record collection" — a product that brings together disparate elements that work together in some ways but in other ways are best appreciated track-by-track.
Record Collection’s second single, “The Bike Song,” for example, recalls a moment of reflection between a hectic weekday morning and an impending hectic night, while the album closer, “The Night Last Night,” is tailor-made for Sunday morning recovery. Every song falls within the dance-lounge spectrum, but each covers different moods and can’t be digested all at once. In his LPs, Ronson is still stretching to create the layered cohesion he developed for Back to Black, but as long as he turns out tracks this intriguing, he’ll keep everyone anxious to see what he’s going to do next.
Mark Ronson, Record Collection Sounds Like: Mark Ronson 99-Cent Download: “Introducing the Business” (featuring the London Gay Men’s Choir) Good For: The build-up, aftermath and in-between moments of a night out 3.5 stars
