Robin Thicke: "Hey Hey Hey..."

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':