200 Words

A week ago Bruno Mars’ second album was released. The album became the fastest selling solo album of 2012, and quickly received lots of acclaim, positive and negative. A.V. Club rated it a C+, the Guardian was a little bit more lenient and granted it three stars. During all critiques though, nobody questioned Mars’s professionalism, except for one artist.

hey @brunomars ! seriously ?

— breakbot (@breakbot) December 13, 2012

Two days after the release of ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’, French producer Breakbot openly questioned the originality of one of Bruno’s new songs, Treasure, which, according to him, has much resemblance with one of his own songs: Baby I’m Yours of his ‘By Your Side’ album. Breakbot isn’t making a big fuzz (yet), but is clearly expecting a reaction.

@brunomars “treasure” is a pretty nice song, but it REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING

— breakbot (@breakbot) December 13, 2012

Comparing both songs it’s clear what Breakbot’s getting at. The refrains sound pretty similar, but the rest of the song is just different. Also, it’s not like Bruno stole Breakbot’s brilliant melody. Disco’s just winning terrain in pop-music and Mars’ Treasure is a consequence of that. Maybe that’s why Bruno Mars decided not to answer the French DJ, or is it because his Twitter-account is obviously run by his management? Considering all this, it might be better that Breakbot isn’t making the resemblance bigger than just a tweet (yet).

Do you want to compare the two songs yourself? Check them both here:

Written by Peter Buurman. 

If I ask you which song you remember of the summer of ’10, I bet you say Baby I’m Yours by Breakbot. If you don’t, you’re in for an even bigger surprise today, because Breakbot finally released his long awaited debut album ‘By Your Side’ on Ed Banger Records. Two years after his first success, Baby I’m Yours, Parisian producer Thibaut Berland releases his album which showcases precisely what you’d expect after hearing his hit and it was definitely worth the wait. What seems the style of most internationally known French acts, like Daft Punk and Cassius, gets revisited by Breakbot and he takes it to a whole new level.

One of the new tracks on ‘By Your Side’ is One Out Of Two (feat. Irfane).

‘By Your Side’ is an album that could make every disco, funk and soul lover’s heart beat faster, and features guest appearances by the likes of Irfane, Pacific! and Ruckazoid. You can clearly hear the Bee Gees, Prince and his French colleague influences in Berland’s style though it’s genuinely unique. My favourite tracks are opener Break Of Dawn and Easy Fraction, two of the instrumental tracks, where Berland shows all the great tricks he’s got up his sleeve. The album is streamable on Spotify and you can buy it on iTunes too!

Album rating:
170 out of 200