Thicke: A Beautiful World

"As Seen On The Sprite 'What's Your Thirst' Commercial," screams the sticker on Thicke's debut album, just below a quote from Rolling Stone hailing the singer-songwriter as "the closest we're going to come to Stevie Wonder." While it's true that Thicke's music was featured in a Sprite commercial, Rolling Stone's endorsement oversells Thicke's considerable charms while being unnecessarily pessimistic about the future of soul. D'Angelo and Bilal have nothing to worry about, but A Beautiful World isn't just a striking debut for the progeny of beloved TV dad Alan Thicke; it'd be a compelling debut for anyone. The album gets off to a meandering start, but begins to kick in with "Suga Mama," a hip-shaking ode to a wealthy and controlling female patron, on which Thicke has the chutzpah to portray his pampered-playboy persona as the vulnerable one, and the charm to pull it off. "Flowers In Bloom" derives its power from the contrast between Thicke's delicate, whispery vocal and propulsive drumming, while "When I Get You Alone" finds a terrific pop song in the trashy, symphonic disco stomp of Walter Murphy's "A Fifth Of Beethoven." The winners continue unabated until late in the album, when Thicke's lyrics start to blur the lines dividing goofy, evocative, and just plain stupid, and moments of strained white-boy soul and dirty-cracker posturing find their way into the mix. To his credit, Thicke seldom tries to sound like anything other than a charmed rich kid being propelled through life on the gentle waves of his own hedonism, and he never tries to overpower his blissfully loose songs, thankfully eschewing the vocal histrionics that have become synonymous with blue-eyed soul. Lisa Marie Presley's debut has cornered the market on nepotistic hype, but Thicke is one celebrity progeny with the talent to back up the look and the name.