First Impressions: In The Thicke Of It, 'Sex Therapy' Not The Perscription
Labels: first impressions, Robin Thicke, spin me right roundLet me just point out the elephant in the room. Robin Thicke has sold out. Now before the tomatoes, chairs, hot combs and grits start to fly in my direction, Mr. Thicke has reason to pitch up his foreclosure sign in his musical front yard, thus the reasons why Sex Therapy: The Experience is the way it is make me feel a bit of sympathy for Thicke.
After 2008's Something Else failed to attract an audience who were searching for the second "Lost Without You" come-on or even reprising what 2005's The Evolution of Robin Thicke or even his 2003 debut, A Beautiful World, possessed, Thicke possibly felt that going down a "radio accessible" route was the answer to him to not be pegged as a one-trick pony chart-wise. But album wise, his artistry is lost.
There was a growing monstrous fear of Mr. Thicke taking the expressway to Sell Out Junction, especially after hearing the atrocious, "Shakin' It For Daddy" last month and the Sex Therapy album as a whole hasn't comforted the fact that he has indeed opted for radio hits than actual substance. It's a career move that he shouldn't have to take, but these are desperate times, and since he's one of the few genuinely talented R&B/Soul cats out there, and since the radio likes something a little gimmicky, Robin switches mindsets. The rap cameos are kicked up a notch, the content is less romantic, even more sleazy, the ballads are lazily done and at times, you can barely hear Thicke because he's sweet falsetto is drowned out by electronic grooves and hip-hop thunder claps. In seriousness, on Sex Therapy, Thicke abandons what got him the attention in the first place for a much more sellable sound, and that's really the big disappointment here.




















