Label

Polydor

Release date

13th October 2008

Genre

Soul

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Soul's smoothest operator returns with a third album of silky wonder

The first white male to top the American R&B chart since George Michael, 31 year-old Thicke shares a similar taste in precision-pruned, slightly dodgy facial hair to our man from Bushey. Prior to solo stardom he was a much in demand songwriter/producer and those talents are still to the fore – Something Else is as slick a slice of nu-soul (try saying that after a couple of Babychams) as you're likely to find but marks a large step forward from his last album The Evolution Of Robin Thicke.

Here he sounds more settled in his voice, less eager to impress and the results fit the silky, lush atmosphere. Like an aural Jacuzzi, only the far away echo of Hendrix in Hard On My Love and the Timberlake shimmy of Magic disturb the calm bubbling waters of an album that could almost single-handedly (ahem) resurrect the legendary end of a 70s disco – the erection section - and that long forgotten inhabitant of the vinyl era the soul Casanova. That the album also fits in two tracks that deal with racism (Dreamworld and Tie My Hands) is even more impressive. Barry White would have loved him.

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