When art imitates life.
While many artists claim to sprinkle real life narratives in their music, Robin Thicke is going the literal route.
The singer’s reps confirmed this week that his new album has been christened ‘Paula’ – after estranged wife Paula Patton.
Together for over 20 years, nine of which have been in a married capacity, the couple announced their separation this year – with Thicke publicly shouldering the “blame” and launching a campaign to ‘Get Her Back’. In line with his new literal approach, the latter is the actual title of the crooner’s recent single; one that garnered headlines aplenty following a live performance at the Billboard Music Awards back in May.
Still pushing the personal agenda, it appears the ‘Blurred Lines’ belter is gearing up to unleash the LP sooner than expected.
Taking to Twitter moments ago, he posted the following image…
So, ‘Paula’ will arrive in an album capacity on July 1st.
Interesting. Perhaps the tabloid interest is what Team Thicke expect to carry the project upon launch. Because, with such a limited lead-in window, it’s a daring strategy to say the least.
We’re nether here nor there as to the validity of the concept (see: getting wife back). We just hope Robin has cooked up solid enough material, as beyond his marriage, his next big hurdle will be maintaining the career momentum and attention ‘Blurred Lines’ gifted him.
Sidenote: Having already drawn comparisons to Marvin Gaye (in both a positive and plagiarising capacity), this move will inevitably reignite such discussion. Why? Well, Gaye famously named one of his album’s ‘Here, My Dear’ – which quite explicitly detailed his divorce from Berry Gordy’s daughter Anna. Granted the narratives are at the opposite ends of the love spectrum (see: desire to reunite /desire to diss), the approach does feel…familiar.