Whereas Mars’ platinum 2010 debut, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” carried an easygoing pop and retro-R&B vibe, including hit singles “Just the Way You Are” and “Grenade,” Unorthodox Jukebox is more ambitious, but no less catchy. The 10-track set veers from pop anthem “Young Girls” to the sex-themed rock of “Gorilla” (with its opening boast “I’ve got a body full of liquor and cocaine kicker”) to soulful ballad “When I Was Your Man.” In between are the hook-laden R&B of “Treasure,” the reggae-fused “Show Me” and the new-wave skank of the single that got Mars’ sophomore party started: “Locked Out of Heaven.”
With its refreshing guitar riffs and retro influences recalling the Police and Bob Marley, the track didn’t sound like anything else on the radio. Mars underscored that when “Saturday Night Live” invited him to host and perform it (as well as “Young Girls”) for the first time. Then in February, the Grammys came calling. Although Mars wasn’t nominated for an award, producer Ken Ehrlich asked him to perform in a tribute to Marley with Rihanna and the Marley family. And that morphed into a performance of “Locked Out of Heaven” with Sting.
“I told Ken, ‘If you can make that happen, it will be an honor,'” Mars says. “It turned out to be the coolest way to kick off an album.”
Mars, of course, was no stranger to the Hot 100 at that point. He began amassing a string of hits in 2009 as a member of songwriting/production trio the Smeezingtons (with Ari Levine and Philip Lawrence). In addition to writing Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You,” B.o.B’s “Nothin’ on You” and Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire,” the Smeezingtons also churned out hits for Mars including “Grenade” and “Just the Way You Are.” The latter gave the singer his first Grammy for best male pop vocal performance.