It’s been too long since I’ve posted anything so I’m very
sorry and embarrassed for the silence. On
the plus side, we’re about to resume our onslaught of soul musical musings,
part of which will be documenting a few recent purchases including new music
from Nicola Conte, The Relatives, Iyeoka, Jose James and Studio Rio. (Nothing gets me more excited than an amazing
crop of new music!)
Before we get to that later this week though…
Last week, free London newspaper ‘The Metro’ had a feature
where they ranked the worst lyricists, I believe a list compiled from public
voting, and I was fairly sad to see Robin Thicke listed as #3. The gift and the curse that was ‘Blurred
Lines’ continues to be a double-edged sword for Thicke – while he’s gone on to
become a household name with the biggest song of his career, and one of the
biggest songs this century, the criticism for “rapey” lyrics persists as well as
an unfortunate downturn resulting in an ill-advised (and much-discussed) MTV
dancing session with Miley Cyrus, a lawsuit with Marvin Gaye’s family, the very
sad end of his marriage to Paula Patton which was subsequently documented in
his most recent album ‘Paula’, with disastrous sales numbers including reportedly just 500
in its first week.
The rocket ride for Pharrell – the song’s producer – seems to
have been meteoric however – follow-up songs ‘Get Lucky (with Daft Punk) and ‘Happy’
require little explanation, the release of heavy chart selling album ‘Girl’,
and continued production work with Paloma Faith, Ed Sheeran and a host of
hip-hop, R&B and pop luminaries.
I’m hopeful that with time, it’s a storm that Thicke can
ultimately see through, but I did want to take up for him regarding the unwarranted
songwriting distinction from The Metro – regardless of what anyone thinks about
‘Blurred Lines’, I can't believe it’s fair to disregard the five albums prior
to ‘Blurred Lines’ and a career that started as far back as 2003. So I thought now would be a good time to
reintroduce you good people to the great music of Robin Thicke through a couple of his classics, ‘Lost Without You’ and 'Sidestep':
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