Michaelangelo Matos

Michaelangelo Matos

Music

Robin Thicke’s ‘Paula’ is a bland apology to estranged wife

Album of the week

Robin Thicke

“Paula”

★½

It’s pointless to joke that Thicke is a cornball — that’s his calling from Day 1. The test is what he does with it. On “Paula,” his seventh album, named for his estranged wife (actress Patton), the answer is to try out an admirable number of different approaches, from the churchy, organ-and-choir-backed “Lock the Door” to the Latin-disco throwback “Whatever I Want” to the Michael Bublé-style razzmatazz of “Time of Your Life.”

Some of this works better than others, but none of the songs do those styles arrestingly well, and so many of them are bland that you don’t need to have hated “Blurred Lines” to find this disappointingly empty. At his worst he’s gratingly cutesy (toddlers’ parents better hope “Tippy Toes” doesn’t catch on), but even when he’s spare and ingratiating, like on “You’re My Fantasy,” the main thing you come away with is that he’s achingly sincere.

It’s not enough.

Downloads of the week

Trey Songz Feat. Justin Bieber

“Foreign (Remix)”

★★★½

R&B singer Trey Songz’ sixth album, “Trigga,” features this lustful robot groove twice. The original is a snooze — don’t bother. But the remix never stops surprising.

Bieber isn’t what makes it go — it’s the skittering beat, the spare, spacey digital instrumentation and the way it seems to constantly change shape.

Warning: Explicit language

Neil Patrick Harris

“Wig in a Box”

★★

It’s a little unfair to consider a show tune outside its show, and Harris is a stage singer more than a guy trying to make great records.

This showstopper from Broadway’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” with NPH in the title role, is enjoyable, but you miss his presence.

Seether

“Words as Weapons”

★★½

From the South African grunge unit’s sixth album, “Isolate and Medicate,” this doesn’t hit every bull’s-eye it aims for — the grunted choruses fall flat.

But other than that it’s decently sung, and the production work, by Brendan O’Brien, has more detail and imagination than the entire Lana Del Rey album.

Jamie XX

“All Under One Roof Raving”

★★

Half of the cult-favorite doom-pop duo the xx, music man Jamie makes dance tracks on his own. This one is a nostalgic semicollage of moments from various British rave tracks, but instead of steamrolling you it ambles along idly.

It’s engaging when you tune in, but easy to tune out.