After aligning with the legendary Andre Harrell at only 16, Thicke might have expected a smooth road to success. To the contrary, his first album took forever to see release, came out twice with two different names and was more or less ignored. A cosign from Pharrell wasnt an instant fix, but after Lost Without You caught on with pop, urban and adult contemporary radio all at once (good lookin out, Oprah) Thicke finally received some recognition. For the first time, Robin is releasing an album with a large fan base already in place. As a result, theres a certain confidence in the choices hes made for Something Else but enough quality to show that he isnt taking his success for granted. It isnt drastically different from either of Thickes first albums, but its hard to call that a bad thing. Tracks like the Motown inspired single Magic arent a surprise, but the ease with which he presents them shows that hes less worried about whether or not someone will hear them.Thicke has always had a talent for paying tribute to his influences without outright stealing from them (such as the Brit-rock flavored Shadow of a Doubt) and once again, he smoothly glides between styles while retaining his own sensibility. In addition, Evolution featured a glut of songs from an artist who was overeager to express himself, but Something Elses shorter, tighter tracklist leaves you wanting more. Now, Thicke focuses on getting the most mileage out of the individual efforts rather than doing every trick in his book. There are some energetic moments worth mentioning (the title track, in particular), but Thicke does seem to be missing a bit of his edge. Hes typically a sly lyricist, injecting humor into his lines without coming off as silly. Robin often even stitches little jokes into the musical side of his compositions, and while that isnt completely gone, it does seem to have been ratcheted back a bit.Its nice to see an artist come back quickly after a huge single and still deliver a quality follow-up. Admittedly, Something Else isnt quite as captivating as much of his past work has been, but thats certainly not to say that it isnt quite good. More to the point, Thicke has achieved a fairly rare feat and again made an album that young music snobs and their mothers can both enjoy, even if for different reasons.Magic – Robin Thicke
