Robin ThickeEver since he rode into our lounge rooms as a scruffy bicycle courier in the clip for his debut 2003 single When I Get You Alone, Robin Thicke has been threatening to give us something truly massive. And ten years later he finally delivered with the Pharrell and TI-assisted single Blurred Lines.
Over his career Thicke has carved out a nice little niche for himself – blue-eyed-pop-disco somewhere between Justin Timberlake and Jamiroquai, and on Blurred Lines the album he gets this sound down to a fine art. Ooo La La and Ain't No Hat 4 That are both sexy, summery, boogie-down killers, the former showing off Thicke's falsetto and some early '80s cool, like a meeting of Maxwell and Earth Wind & Fire, while the latter injects a sultry Latin strut courtesy of a devastatingly funky bassline and hip-wiggling percussion.
Yet unsurprisingly, and sadly, Blurred Lines is forced into modern club sounds at times. Take It Easy On Me's clattering big-room beats and electro-lite syths are pure EDM-by-numbers while new single Give It 2 U is without doubt the worst use of Kendrick Lamar to date, the West Coast MC definitely in need of saying 'no' more often. Back on track Thicke tries his own hand at a sing-songy rap flow on the fun Top Of The World while the sole slow jam For The Rest Of My Life is his shot at a wedding classic.
With a superbly versatile voice, Robin Thicke has his own lane when it comes to feelgood, somewhat banal pop music; it's just a shame he is sometimes pushed into far more disposable sounds.
