This new CD by Robin Thicke (son of actor Alan Thicke) is GREAT! The songwriting is fun, spiritual, and sexual (sometimes political, but not arrogant). The music is top-notch R&B/Pop/Funk, retro but not derivative.

I highly recommend this CD, especially to members of the Org. It's VERY Stevie Wonder/Jamiroquai-sounding, with obvious influences from the Beatles as well. There are even hints of 1999-era Prince and Off The Wall-era MJ sprinkled throughout.

The main "single" (I have yet to hear any of this on the radio) is "When I Get You Alone". It's based on the Beethoven's 5th symphony that was redone in the 70's as a disco track.

Mostly, I'd have to say that this is a "fun" album, and it sounds like he had a great time making it. My take of the artist is that he's somewhat of a Bohemian, get's a little high, loves the ladies, and is "free". Maybe that sounds hokey but it's close . . .

My only complaint is that there's no "album" feel to me - it seems like just a collection of songs - but it's still great!
[This message was edited Fri Apr 25 12:26:43 PDT 2003 by Se7en]

And if he's Alan Thicke's son, you KNOW it's fonky!

Se7en said:

The compilation off KaZaa of this album has a better flow BUT I love it nonetheless. O.K., before the anti-download people come after me, I also bought the album. Thicke's all over the place but luckily, I love all kinds of music so I still dug it all. I agree with you, he does sound free. Great debut effort.

Dude, I posted this already http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_692081

I've posted about Thicke a few times, but no one seems to care

Janfriend -

Sorry, I didn't see that post! But hey, the message is the same: Great Album!!

I agree with you about "Make A Baby" . . . it really doesn't flow in this album, but I still like it. It's fun - VERY Beatles.

My favorites so far are A Beautiful World, The Stupid Things, and Lazy Bones -- I love the first single When I Get You Alone, but I heard it about 6 months ago and it's a little old to me.

Did you get yours in a store, 'cuz I had to order mine online. Nobody around me even HEARD of the man!

Alright is a GREAT track - very cool laid back groove.

Se7en said:

I got it at Best Buy for $9.99. It wasn't on display anywhere. I had to ask one of the employees about it and he was like "I saw it in the back" He had to go in the back to get me a copy. I was offended. Kelly Clarkson's ass was right there in the front. Many people on Thicke's website said the stores they went to only had 2 or 3 copies. Some people couldn't find it anywhere and ordered it online like you. I like "Make A Baby"

Janfriend-

Do you have the original tracklisting (the one that was on Kazaa)?

I'd like to see how the "flow" changed . . . also, I wonder why was the title was changed?

Se7en said:

No I don't have the original tracklisting, but I will find out for you. Everyone wants to know why he changed the title, but...no one is quite sure yet

Janfriend said:

I like Thicke, but durn, he waited nearly a YEAR after his video for "When I Get You Alone" dropped to drop his LP. He changed the name of the LP (from "Cherry Blue Skies" to "A Beautiful World"), and something tells me they made major changes to the original LP.

"ABW" is a good LP.

All the songs are the same, but with more sounds added to them. there were 12 tracks. The two new ones are "She's Gangsta" and "A Beautiful World"

Se7en said:

Ok the original tracklisting was the same take away "A Beautiful World" and "She's Gangsta"

My favorite song is The Stupid things and I also like A Brand new Jones, I've been grooving to this CD for the last few dayz now

You know what, I actually listened to this album at Tower records and , as much as I wanted to bash it, I really couldn't. This boy's got some soul. At first I thought this was gonna be some silly Jamiroquai knock off, but it really wasn't.

Love this CD. Suspect that he might go the way of Nikka though. Crazy talented, but fails to really take off.

Se7en said:

Here's and excerpt from an online interview at http://urban.mvremix.com/...icke.shtml

Why the change from the original title of the album ("Cherry Blue Skies") to "A Beautiful World"?
Well it had been obviously ["Cherry Blue Skies" was written about September 11th] been over a year since I'd written the song. Of course, "Cherry Blue Skies" was not just a song about my feelings then but it's about my feelings about ongoing turmoil and pain and struggle. We should always been striving to not fight violence with violence but to actually try to figure out a way to make things better.

"A Beautiful World" is similar though. There's no doubt that there are times when it's definitely not a beautiful world. More than ever, right now things are going on that prove that it's a "difficult" time and a lot of people would say, "The world is not beautiful. The world is messed up right now." But to me, you have a chance every day to make a conscious decision of how you see yourself, the people around you and the world you live in.

I just try to remind myself how many beautiful things there are. I just want the album to stand for that although it seems things are all fucked up, as long as we understand how beautiful it is - maybe we can flourish in that way.