The award-winning multiplatinum superstar returns to
center stage with Something Else, a joyful and modern
tribute to the ‘70s soul and pop records that
have inspired an extraordinary career.
Something Else is aptly titled. “It’s time
for hope and change,” Thicke says. “It’s
in the air. And I’m speaking on the times around
me.” Thicke echoes the change with mesmerizing
Superfly-era vocals, Gamble and Huff-inspired horn arrangements
(“Hard on My Love”), unabashed lyrical optimism
and an irresistible invitation to the dance floor (“Side
Step”). “I don’t want to be a preacher,
but I do think at the core of every great existence
is an abundance of love and joy, and the only way to
create that is to give it,” he adds.
Born in Los Angeles, Thicke grew up with an ear trained
squarely at R&B and hip-hop. “I was listening
to Kurtis Blow at 8, NWA at 12, Jodeci and Mary J. at
14 and Boyz II Men and Babyface soon after,” Thicke
says. “I didn’t even listen to rock and
roll music until I was 17. And I find myself thinking
that’s more normal than it is.” André
Harrell (then president of Bad Boy Entertainment and
mentor to Mary J. Blige, Puff Daddy and Thicke) heard
the lanky white kid and was dumbstruck. “I heard
what Martin Luther King, Jr. described in his dream
of a new America: a place where a white man in the San
Fernando Valley can feel Detroit, Harlem and the blues,”
he says.
The spirit of Michael Jackson looms large throughout
the new release. “Michael is the epitome of celebration,
and the core of this album has that: It’s celebratory,
healing, loving music,” Thicke says. To deepen
that connection, Thicke employed the same horn section
used on Jackson’s “You Wanna Be Starting
Something,” from the 1979 classic, Off the Wall.
“André Harrell told me, ‘When God
is singing loud, that’s the sound of horns,’”
he says. Gary Grant and the Jackson horn section contributed
to the album’s trans-generational appeal. “I
kept the kids on some songs and the adults on others,
so it’s the sound of young and old coming together.”
Something Else also benefits from writing sessions
that took place in different cities, a tactic employed
by several of Thicke’s idols, including Marvin
Gaye. “New York is the center of information,
so I took a few trips there and set up a big studio,”
Thicke says. Songs like “Sidestep” and “Something
Else” with their heavy, insistent grooves, were
the result. “Paris is the center of romance,”
he says, “and I went there, and found ‘Sweetest
Love,’ ‘You’re My Baby’ and
‘Miss Harmony.’”
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