Although Bruno Mars’s latest album (24K Magic) was released in 2016, it felt like a Disneyland recreation from 1986. Anderson. Paak broke out as a rapper and singer who could share the difference between vintage soul and contemporary hip-hop, but in 2019 Ventura it was a disappointing retreat in retro. It didn’t break (Mars’ album took home all the Grammys, and .Paak won one too), so rather than solve it, he doubles down on a new collaboration called Silk Sonic.
Launched alongside an introductory piece with voices spoken by Bootsy Collins, “Leave the Door Open” turns the soul of the ’70s into a costume drama, without drama. You can play the influences on the spot with the skillfully rendered pastiche if you wish – you’d probably be better served by mixing it through an expert-clean compilation of Quiet Storm, like David Toop’s 1996 anthology Sugar and poison—But what you have left is a slow blockage, which may show the late-night “wyd” texts, but which never breaks the character long enough to recognize the present. This is not postmodern like Love from below or even Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine; it is the past in the form of a hologram. Instead of passively leaving the door open, Silk Sonic should invite listeners to enter.