This CD cover image released by Interscope shows 'Paula ' the latest release by Robin Thicke out July 1 2014.(Photo AP)
In 1978 the recently divorced Marvin Gaye unleashed Here My Dear still held by many as the ultimate musical document of a bitter breakup. It has taken more than 35 years but at last that album's spiritual antipole has arrived courtesy of one of Gaye's most famous admirers.
Robin Thicke's Paula ( out of four) out today shares its name (as you've no doubt heard) with Thicke's gorgeous estranged wife surname Patton. The actress and the pop/RB star former teenage sweethearts with a young son announced their separation in February after a year in which Thicke enjoyed a seemingly unstoppable No. 1 single posed with nude models in an accompanying video and shared the MTV Video Music Awards stage with a twerking Miley Cyrus.
FIRST LISTEN Hear Robin Thicke's 'Paula' at usatoday.com
What actually happened between Thicke and Patton and where they stand now is nobody's business but theirs though Thicke provides plenty of fodder for speculation here. Which young woman (or women) or what flights of fancy inspired the darkly throbbing Whatever I Want or the swaggering Love Can Grow Back or the self mocking Something Bad
What seems clear is that Thicke is well sorry and determined to set things right. The funky but frantic Too Little Too Late and You're My Fantasy border on groveling. I don't know how you do it ... Trying to be a mother earner lady and a star Thicke coos on the latter over a gently pulsing groove and delicate acoustic guitar. I understand right now you need some space and time he adds.
Yet Paula also reminds us what a fluid and expressive singer Thicke can be. The album is more texturally and emotionally varied and melody focused than last year's Blurred Lines with arrangements that nod heavily to old school soul. Piquant female backing vocals pop up on various tracks among them Black Tar Cloud and Lock the Door appeals to women who could be messed up or just fed up.
Such accounts may be troubling in themselves but it's safe to assume that Thicke didn't intend Paula as a documentary or a manifesto heaven help us on the opposite sex. In the end the album tells us more about its creator who seems plenty aware that he's got his own issues to sort through.
Download Lock the Door Black Tar Cloud Forever Love
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