Archive for the ‘Robin Thicke’ Category

So, I like Robin Thicke. To a certain extent, I don’t even mind his father Alan. Not like I actively hated “Growing Pains,” and dad wrote a ton of theme songs to TV shows in the 1970s-80s (“Three’s Company,” anyone?). I adored “I Get You Alone” off of his debut disc A Beautiful World, a vocal reworking of Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven” off of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The rest of the album was pretty good, and I figured that consequent releases would show him growing and becoming more of a complete singer/songwriter. This begins with The Evolution of Robin Thicke, and there’s a slight progression on his third album, Something Else.

It’s not that I don’t like Sex Therapy, it’s just that I’m no longer feeling a music progression from him. In a way, a lot of what’s on the album is the kind of sound found on pretty much any urban radio station in the country. And while Robin has a beautiful head-voice, at times in his career I wish I’d hear more of his powerful mid-register. There’s still a lot of head-voice, but it does have some better lower to mid-register vocal material on it.

The thing is, I actually like the record. I guess he’s becoming a guy who puts out a record that you’re expecting him to release, and that’s not necessarily always the worst thing in the world. He still has a very good voice, he still writes a very good lyric, and still writes accessible songs, while getting some good guest stars to stop by (Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, and Estelle, to name 3 from this album). So, I think this is actually worth checking out.

And as the host of your favorite down-tempo night time show on WAGM, “Dial It Down,” I can tell you that there’s more of a collection slower to mid-tempo tracks than faster tunes. I’d expect to be hearing some of this record on the show in the coming weeks.
3 out of 5 stars.

Mark Massi