Comparing Contemporary Crooners: Justin Timberlake & Robin Thicke

There are many similarities in the musical style and presentation of Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke. Grantland wrote a brilliant piece about how Thicke has filled the niche that Timberlake left void by plunging into the 20/20 Experience. It’s a great read and I won’t steal any of its points. Rather, I’d like to present a comparison of the pair’s 2013 albums: The 20/20 Experience and Blurred Lines.

It’s worth noting that the background for these two artists is extremely different. Timberlake, of N*SYNC and the Mickey Mouse Club, has always been successful, at least commercially. You won’t find many music bloggers who wrote about the artistic merits of N*SYNC (partially because bloggers didn’t really exist in 1998 and boy bands have never been revered by the artistic community). Robin Thicke never had a mega-hit before Blurred Lines although he was making some very good music. 2006’s The Evolution of Robin Thicke is an underrated album featuring production from the brilliant Pharrell. Thicke was making quality music while flying somewhat under the radar. All he needed was a dozen women dancing naked around him to launch his career as a superstar (interestingly, this had the opposite effect on Tiger Woods’ career).

[I must add that I find Robin Thicke comical. His hair style is illogical and Alan Thicke is his father. But his infatuation with sex makes him seem almost a caricature, like the horny friend in a high school/college comedy (Stiffler). As a judge on the show “Duets,” his criticisms were consistently that the performances needed more sexuality. It could have been a father and daughter singing “Unforgettable,” Robin Thicke thought it needed more sexual chemistry.]

Blurred Lines

The naked women dancing around Robin Thicke are featured in his Blurred Lines music video. If you haven’t seen the uncensored video, here it is courtesy of YouTube’s ugly stepchild, Vevo. It is devoid of any subtlety from the nude women, the “#THICKE” hashtag blasted in your face every ten seconds, to the highlight of the video: balloons that spell out “Robin Thicke Has a Big Dick.” It’s brash, it’s provocative, it's fun, and it’s a feminist’s worst nightmare. It can be argued that the song is about rape, or at least nonconsensual sex, which most lawyers would argue is rape. “I know you want it,” “you’re a good girl,” “I hate those blurred lines”… “Blurred lines” may represent the blurred line of sexual consent. (This theory has gotten mixed reactions from people. They may not be “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” but the lyrics have a Dennis Reynolds “implication” feel to them.)  

However, musically, there is nothing offensive about Blurred Lines. It’s a two chord tune with a feel that emulates Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up. It’s simple, it’s catchy, and it’s four minutes long. The same can be said of the rest of the Blurred Lines album. The lyrics are adventurous and consistently sexual, but there is nothing adventurous about the music. Blurred Lines is 13 tracks long, none of which are longer than four minutes. The whole album is very listenable, particularly the disco-esque Ooo La La, Ain’t No Hat 4 That (though I have no idea what it means), and the contemporary sounding Give it 2 U. Blurred Lines is as digestible to pop music listeners as Activia is to Jamie Lee Curtis.

The 20/20 Experience 

Let’s contrast this with Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience. Musically, it’s daunting. The album consists of 10 tracks, none of which are shorter than 4:48 (That Girl). Six of the ten tracks are longer than seven minutes. This is not a format that the casual listener is accustomed to. It’s unorthodox, it’s experimental. When making the album, Timberlake aspired to create long tracks like classic rock bands used to. Each track explores its groove in several different ways. Musically, it’s as digestible as Indian food. It’s spicy and flavorful, but your digestive system probably isn’t going to be happy.

Timberlake went this route because he can. At this point in his career, he didn’t need to turn heads. He strives to be musically innovative and that’s just what he did here. Mirrors is eight minutes long and it still gets played on the radio. There’s no way that an eight minute jam by Robin Thicke, or anyone else without JT’s pedigree, gets radio play.

Lyrically, you would have to be an extreme prude to find anything offensive about most of The 20/20 Experience, except for Pusher Love Girl (which compares love to heroin). There’s nothing edgy about eating truffles in tuxedos, even if it is said by Jay-Z. Most of the songs focus on love in its traditional sense, dancing, and having fun. Timberlake is done bringing sexy back, now he's bringing classy back.

Combining the Conventional and the Unconventional

Blurred Lines and The 20/20 Experience have a similar retro 70’s sound and are both very successful albums, yet their goals are very different. Thicke aspires to turn heads with unorthodox lyrics and brash sexuality, on top of fairly conservative music. Timberlake aspires to innovate musically, challenging pop music conventions, while appeasing the listener with generally wholesome lyrics, fortifying his classy persona. Both albums mix the conventional and the unconventional in a way both casual pop fans and music lovers can appreciate.

Looking Back to Look Forward - Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories"

 

Has there ever been a better marketed album prior to its release than Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories?" You would have a hard time finding one. After a brilliant series of video interviews featuring The Collaborators from the album along with hints of the tracks, fans of Daft Punk knew that this was going to be something special. But the promotion left a high level of mystery. Until the album's leak, available streaming on iTunes, fans had no idea what this would sound like. Expectations were extremely high and "Random Access Memories" does not disappoint. Let's jump right into the first track...

"Give Life Back to Music" opens like the opening to an album, not the opening of an individual song. Those first three notes are big, powerful and grandiose. There's a ton of energy in that opening and then it pulls you into a groove that's so silky smooth, you're almost taken aback by it. One of the things Daft Punk has done really well throughout their career is contrast. By opening with brash chords, the slip into the Nile Rodgers driven guitar groove feels like a trip into another world, a world in which pop music hasn't lived in decades.

Throughout the album, the robot voice (vocoder) is a fantastic way to remind the listener that what they are hearing is Daft Punk. "The Game of Love" uses the vocoder vocals well proving that a "robot voice" can be just as expressive (if not more) than a human's.

"Giorgio" is definitely a polarizing track. Putting a 9 minute epic as the third track on your album is bold. But music lovers have to appreciate the incredible composition it is. "Giorgio" is an exploration throughout funk/early electronic music. The personnel on this track is loaded. The talent and technique exhibited throughout Giorgio is inspiring.

My only critique of the album is that it could use horn players. A saxophone, trumpet and/or trombone would have added an additional layer of sound, not to mention brought even more energy to the tracks. Many of the legendary disco groups and songs featured great horn sections. A homage to the disco era feels like it's missing something without horns.

Daft Punk are so attentive to detail in their sound engineering that the spoken sections by Giorgio Moroder (who everybody calls Giorgio) were done with 6 different microphones as he discusses different eras. Would anybody notice that? Probably not. But Daft Punk would. The grand finale, which Giorgio describes as "the sounds of the future," is dazzling.

A piano interlude by the fantastic Chilly Gonzales takes us into "Within." It's a really pretty melody with the most interesting sung lyrics of the album, thus far. "Please tell me who I am," "looking for someone"... these are emotional lyrics. They also take on a very different meaning when sung by a robot. The robots are experiencing emotion. The robots are becoming sentient!! IS NO ONE ELSE TERRIFIED?

Anyway, "Instant Crush" opens with what sounds eerily like Wham!'s "Last Christmas" but is carried by The Strokes' lead singer, Julian Casablancas. The first minute of the song is very a straight ahead groove, heavy on downbeats with little syncopation. When the chorus comes in, it's a brand new tune with a groove heavy on upbeats and syncopation. Due to the contrast between the chorus and verse, the chorus feels even funkier than it is (and it's already very funky). "Instant Crush" has potential to be the album's second big single.

The heaviest hitter among the collaborators, Pharrell Williams, makes his first appearance on the album with "Lose Yourself to Dance." However Pharrell is not the takeaway from this track, it is Nile Rodgers' fantastic playing, again. He is a master of groove, dictating the entire feel of the song with his complex, rhythmic guitar riffs. Rodgers may be the MVP of the album.

"Touch" is a bit out there for me. It's slightly disappointing as it features Paul Williams, composer of maybe the greatest song ever written for a film, "The Rainbow Connection" (which is masterfully sung by a puppet frog on the river, playing a banjo). The climax is grandiose, but it takes a long time to get there.


Here we get the album's hit single (and it's not even close), "Get Lucky." The NY Times piece on the song gives an excellent description of  why "Get Lucky" may be the biggest hit of the summer due to its genre-defiance and marketability. Though played by real drums, the drum track is manipulated to sound driving and almost electronic. Mixed with another great guitar groove by Rodgers and vocals from Pharrell, "Get Lucky" combines modern and disco sounds expertly, especially considering that none of the album's tracks were recorded together.

One way in which "Get Lucky" has Daft Punk's flavor is through the use of the duo's trademark technique of presenting a melody, then a counter-melody, and finally the two melodies on top of each other. In "Get Lucky," it's Pharrell's vocals, the robotic vocoder vocals, and then the two together. It's the blueprint for Discovery, Alive 2007 (in which they combined tracks/melodies from different albums), and a couple songs from Random Access Memories. It's interesting that while the groove may sound totally different, the basic musical structure remains the same.

After a grand orchestral opening, complete with a string section and timpani, "Beyond" falls into a groove reminiscent of Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'." When recording the album, Daft Punk sought to achieve what they called a "west coast vibe," referencing groups like the Doobie Brothers. Somewhat surprisingly, it was the short lived (and historically under appreciated) Michael McDonald-era of the Doobie Brothers sound that they achieved.

"Motherboard" is a track that will likely be overlooked, but it may be the closest thing to the Daft Punk of old. If Discovery were to be recorded by talented musicians without samples and loops, it would sound something like "Motherboard." It sounds like something out of a spy thriller (think Bourne Identity).

"Fragments of Time" features Todd Edwards, best known for his previous Daft Punk collaboration "Face to Face." While "Face to Face" sampled an Electric Light Orchestra song (Evil Woman), it sounded nothing like a record that could come out of the 1970s. "Fragments of Time" sounds like a Hall & Oates record. It may be cheesy, the lyrics are uninspiring, but it gives a modern touch to an 80s groove that brilliantly creates a new sound. It is a minor detail but in the chorus, in between the sung lyrics, there are a series of isolated guitar and keyboard figures, recorded on different tracks which sound like choppy fragments of phrases. As the song is about "Fragments of Time," Daft Punk continue to show their mastery of sound engineering.

"Doing it Right" features Panda Bear of Animal Collective, one of the more innovative electronic bands today.  It is one of the rare tracks on the album with little to no disco influence. For me, it falls short in terms of energy. The track does not build throughout, though it does use Daft Punk's technique of presenting melody, counter-melody, then the two together. Humans and robots singing in harmony. Beautiful stuff.

"Contact" is a gripping ending which makes great use of a quote from Apollo 17 in which an astronaut gives us reason to believe there is life outside of Earth. The five note phrase after "there's something out there" is chilling. What "Doing it Right" lacks in build, "Contact" more than makes up for. It culminates with an all out headbanging rock feel supporting an ascending synthesizer which sounds like a spaceship leaving Earth. It shows the depth of what the synthesizer can do and just how far it has come.

Earlier in the album, Giorgio discusses the synthesizer as being the sound of the future. With Random Access Memories, Daft Punk have left their mark on what the future should sound like. By recreating sounds of the past, with modern elements, Daft Punk pay homage to music's recent history while setting the bar for contemporaries. It is a timeless album and one that can be appreciated by all fans of music, young and old, not just fans of Daft Punk.