Robin Thicke

Photo: Meeno

Aspiring R&B singer Robin Thicke must have known he’d have to fight an uphill battle. Not only is he white, he’s also, well, Alan Thicke’s son (just FYI). But on his third album, the far-too-modestly titled Something Else (Star Trak), Thicke continues to prove why it’s not he but Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake who should be feeling the growing pains.

On first listen, Thicke’s biggest counter to the naysayers is hard to dispute: He has the best male falsetto in pop, Timberlake included. And unlike Gnarls Barkley’s ’60s retreads, the Mark Ronson–fueled Northern Soul and Stax revivals or the irony-laden, clumsy funk often produced elsewhere by his producers and label bosses, the Neptunes, Thicke’s output does not shy away from wrestling with the more conventional soul gods. As transparently as possible, Thicke invokes Curtis Mayfield horn arrangements on the single “Magic,” raw Jimi Hendrix guitar on “Hard on My Love,” Sade lite-soul in the sublime “Loverman” and the quiet desperation of Marvin Gaye’s voice on nearly every track. Much of Something, in fact, moves like a custom-tailored playlist for a stepper’s ball.

But Something also takes detours from its predecessors, especially lyrically. “Dreamworld 1” repositions the spooky chords of “I Put a Spell on You” into a sly commentary on gas guzzling, racism (in regard to Thicke’s African-American wife) and, oddly enough, the tragic ending of Gaye’s short life. It’s a here’s-what’s-wrong-with-the-world song, a rite of passage for all great R&B men, and again, Thicke proves up to the challenge. So don’t pick this album up expecting a reinvented wheel. Thicke has something far more impressive to offer up to the soul gods: skill.

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