Mark Ronson’s newest release Leaving Los Feliz, featuring Kevin Parker highlights all of the wonderful aspects of this great city. The song itself has a psychedelic flavor infused with poppy catchiness and enchanting George Harrison-esque riffs. The song is featured on Ronson’s new album, Upton Special. The inclusion of Kevin Parker gives it a melodic hip-hop backbeat and accomplishes a perfect melding of different genres.
Leaving Los Feliz seems to highlight the inescapable “hipster culture” that largely encapsulates much of the city’s vibe. One of the lines, “But the yearning is timeless and mine is as deep as the pit”, seems to hint at how hard it is leaving Los Feliz, a city so filled with dreams, creativity, and youth. Ronson is quoted in an interview that the lyrics are based on “an aging hipster who doesn’t want to admit he’s too old to still be going to the party”. The pull of Los Feliz isn’t just the youth culture that surrounds it, but the inspiring creativity that is so deeply engrained in the city. It may be hard for an aging hipster to leave the party, but Los Feliz holds a special grip on him because of its creative pull. Maybe he’s too old for the party, but he isn’t too old to be creative.
The album, Uptown Special, is a blend of creative geniuses, seems to echo the effusive creativity of Los Feliz. The album itself is dedicated to Amy Winehouse, giving a distinctive spin to the songs on the album. This is also the same album that produced the magnanimous hit, Uptown Funk. The album has sold over 250,000 copies and debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 chart. It is no surprise that this fun, funky, and, of course, fabulous album included highlighted Los Feliz as one of the main themes on its track!
