October 01, 2008 @ 1:26 pm

Robin Thicke: Something Else

Sean Fennessey

More smooth grooves and buttery vocals from our favorite quiet stormer.

Robin Thicke
Something Else (Star Trak/Interscope)

The most exciting thing about Robin Thicke’s music is its breadth, its clear-eyed vision of what R&B has been and can be. The least exciting thing is his propensity for repeating its mistakes. Thicke is, of course, the genre’s favorite white boy, filling a quota that has been occupied by less worthy and less accomplished artists in generations previous.

But, like many of his predecessors, he rarely acts like it. Instead what you get is a strange, refreshing amalgam: Alexander O’Neal-ish openness, Luther Vandross-style swing, Smokey Robinson-esque falsetto, even James Ingram’s hokiness. That he is less technically gifted than any of those artists is of concern. His voice is thin, his production a revision of other eras. On Something Else, the influences are blatant: “Magic” is pure Quincy Jones, “Hard On My Love” stretches out with Gamble and Huff horns, even “Tie My Hands,” originally from Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal, 2008), has a touch of Otis Redding dock-of-the-bay sad stroll in it.

But on Something Else—a sharper, more concise follow-up to 2006’s breakthrough but spotty, The Evolution of Robin Thicke (Star Trak/Interscope)—songwriter and producer Thicke is using the tones and rhythms of soul music for a bigger idea: dissatisfaction. Evolution was sultry. And that’s here, too, leaning on matters of the heart on the late-period Marvin Gaye retread “Loverman” and plainspoken “The Sweetest Love.” But the album’s mid-period Marvin moves are way more interesting. “Dreamworld” is an unoriginal conceit—If I could live in a dreamworld this is what I want!—but with songwriting that is specific and personal, Thicke sounds like a man with depth. “There would be no black or white/The world would just treat my wife right/We could walk down a Mississippi/No one would look at us twice,” he sings, referencing his wife, the actress Paula Patton, throwing in a dose of John Lennon-style social musing.

The title track is ostensibly a disco vamp, but behind the flash is a disaffection that rings true; that folks will be dancing to disillusion isn’t exactly new—Sly Stone comes to mind—but it’s relevant right now. Later, on “Shadow of Doubt,” Thicke sings, “I’ve had enough,” his voice fuller and more wounded than ever before. “I’m in flames/I’m on fire,” he bellows in his deepest register, before letting his falsetto swing through.

It’s not an uncommon mode: happy when you’re sad, tears of a clown and all that. This is how to sell trouble. Thicke is a traditionalist, unafraid of sop, but he’s still looking for more. On Something Else, he’s found a few answers.

Robin Thicke’s Something Else hit the stores on 9/30/08

The album cover for "Something Else"

Track Listing for Something Else

1. You're My Baby
2. Side Step
3. Magic
4. Ms. Harmony
5. Dreamworld
6. Lay Down
7. Loverman
8. Hard On My Love
9. Sweetest Love
10. Round Two
11. Something Else
12. Shadow of Doubt
13. Stranger
14. Cry No More

Article tags: Reviews, Revolutions, Robin Thicke, Something Else