Switched on Pop

Bruno Mars is back with a new album called The Romantic, his first solo release since 2016’s 24k Magic. At first listen, the lead single, “I Just Might,” sounds like an outtake from 2021’s collaborative album with Anderson Paak, the Philly soul-inspired An Evening with Silk Sonic. Listen closer though and another element emerges: a fast-paced conga drum line.

The rest of Mars’s nine-track confection chases that Latin influence. This is not just another retread of 70s funk and soul. In fact, The Romantic makes the case that Mars is pop’s great counter-programmer, finding styles of the past that no one else has yet mined.

Charlie and Nate break down all the new territory covered by Mars, from Latin boleros to Cuban cha chas, Nuyorican boogaloo to a mariachi “My Way.” The results may not change your mind about Mars, but they might make you appreciate the finer points of what is sure to be an omnipresent new release. 

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

Songs discussed:

Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars - Die With A Smile

ROSÉ, Bruno Mars - APT.

Bruno Mars - Risk It All

Eydie Gormé, Los Panchos - Sabor a Mí

Frank Sinatra - My Way 

Bruno Mars - Cha Cha Cha

JUVENILE, Soulja Slim - Slow Motion

Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That

Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin - I Like It

Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut

Bruno Mars - I Just Might

Redbone - Come and Get Your Love

Leo Sayer - You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

Bruno Mars - God Was Showing Off

Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones

Bruno Mars - Why You Wanna Fight?

Bruno Mars - On My Soul

Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up

Bruno Mars - Something Serious

Willie Bobo - Evil Ways

Santana - Evil Ways

Santana - Oye Como Va

Tito Puente - Oye Cómo Va

Bruno Mars - Nothing Left

Bruno Mars - Dance With Me

Stephen Sanchez - Until I Found You

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Emerald Fennell's new adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 gothic romance "Wuthering Heights" is the most talked-about film of the year. But for pop lovers, the soundtrack is the real event: Charli xcx, asked to write one song, ended up recording an entire album for the movie while in the middle of the BRAT tour.

If BRAT gave people permission to be messy on the dance floor, this score gives permission to be messy in your souls. But Charli isn't the first artist to channel "Wuthering Heights" into music. Line up her hyperpop strings and cavernous reverb against Kate Bush's winding harmonies, a Hollywood orchestral score from 1939, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's unsettled piano, and something surprising emerges: the most operatic, passionate, Wuthering Heights-obsessed recording of them all might belong to someone you'd never expect.Songs discussed:


Charli xcx “Everything is Romantic”


Charli xcx “Always Everywhere”


Charli xcx “House” (feat. John Cale)


Hans Zimmer “Inception score”


Charli xcx “Wall of Sound”


Ike & Tina Turner “River Deep, Mountain High”


Charli xcx “Chains of Love”


Charli xcx “Out of Myself”


Charli xcx “Funny Mouth” (co-written with Joe Curie)


Alfred Newman “Wuthering Heights score (1939)”


Ryuichi Sakamoto “Wuthering Heights score (1992)”


Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights”


Celine Dion “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

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It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta blues is front and center, and begs the question: will the movie's legacy help bring the blues back into popular culture? There's already been a precedent for films reviving dead genres – think The Sting and its ragtime score, or O Brother Where Art Thou's relationship to bluegrass – and on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna and Nate talk with Vulture writer Fran Hoepfner about the times in which movie soundtracks have shifted the musical culture.

Read Fran's piece on movie scoring, The Death of the Classic Film Score, here.

Songs discussed:

Miles Caton – I Lied to You

Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive

Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)

Marvin Hamlisch – The Entertainer

Wu-Tang Clan – Fast Shadow

Bee Gees – More Than A Woman

Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing

Harry McClintock – The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray

The Soggy Bottom Boys – I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow

*NSYNC – Bye Bye Bye

The Brian Setzer Orchestra – Jump Jive An' Wail

Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher

Royal Crown Revue – Hey Pachuco!

Caravan Palace – Lone Digger

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Go Daddy O

Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell

Fergie, Q-Tip, GoonRock – A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

Lana Del Rey – Young And Beautiful

Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight

Kavinsky – Nightcall

College, Electric Youth – A Real Hero

M83 – Midnight City

The Weeknd – Take My Breath

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A$AP Rocky’s latest album, Don’t Be Dumb, is a wild ride through a cacophony of sounds — punk, industrial, drum ‘n’ bass, indie rock, and of course, hip hop. But on one track, “Robbery,” he and the rising superstar Doechii sample the world of jazz, specifically Thelonious Monk’s 1955 cover of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” In the process, Rocky and Doechii don’t just loop and flow, they create a whole narrative of jazz age victors and villains inspired by the rhythms and harmonies of jazz greats. The result is a song, and album, that makes the case for why hip hop matters more than ever in 2026.

A$AP Rocky – ROBBERY (feat. Doechii)

A$AP Rocky – STOLE YA FLOW

A$AP Rocky – ORDER OF PROTECTION

A$AP Rocky – PLAYA

A$AP Rocky – STFU (feat. Slay Squad)

A$AP Rocky – AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO)

A$AP Rocky – THE END (feat. will.i.am & Jessica Pratt)

Kendrick Lamar - For Free? - Interlude 

Clairo - Sinking 

Thelonious Monk - Caravan

A$AP Rocky - L$D

Lou Donaldson - Ode To Billie Joe 

Thelonious Monk - Black And Tan Fantasy

Wu-Tang Clan - Shame On a N**** 

Duke Ellington, John Coltrane - My Little Brown Book 

Ghostface Killah - Malcolm 

Thundercat - Them Changes

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What makes Weird Al songs so indelible? Why is Bo Burnham more than just a comic? How do the biggest pop hits make us crack up in the middle of a somber ballad? Humor is always present in music, but we rarely confront it head on. Until now. With the help of Comedian Chris Duffy, author of the book Humor Me: How Laughing Can Make You More Connected, Present, and Happy, and a series of lyrical submission from our listeners, we try to answer the question once posed by Frank Zappa, once and for all: Does humor belong in music?

Songs discussed:

Sabrina Carpenter – ManchildMarcia Belsky – 100 TamponsBo Burnham – From God’s PerspectiveSnoop Dogg – Gin and JuiceThe Gourds – Gin and JuiceTaylor Swift – All Too Well (10 Minute Version)“Weird Al” Yankovic – Amish Paradise“Weird Al” Yankovic – My BolognaStevie Wonder – Pastime ParadiseCoolio – Gangsta’s ParadiseBo Burnham – That Funny FeelingBo Burnham – FaceTime With My MomElaine Stritch – Are You Having Any Fun?Barenaked Ladies – If I Had $1,000,000Kendrick Lamar – Not Like UsEminem – The Real Slim Shady2 Chainz – Birthday SongLil Jon – Snap Yo FingersOlivia Rodrigo – Get Him BackChappell Roan – CasualAudrey Hobert – I like to touch peopleAudrey Hobert – Bowling alleyJensen McRae – Immune
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