The album’s first single and title track, Love After War was incredibly predictable. A cliché take on Al Green-esque sensuality, this track is full of Thicke-typical crooning and murmuring and a ton of repetitive one-word pleading. I was utterly unimpressed with this song, especially since the 15-year-old girl in me is kind of a fan of Lost Without U. The songs sound similar enough that I lost interest about halfway through – the track in its entirety has only 2 verses and I can’t say that they were anything remarkable. Love After War could have benefited from better lyrics (“Just drink this glass of wine/And remember you’re mine”), which were awful to the point of being a distraction.

Don’t misunderstand me, Robin Thicke has an amazing voice, but I don’t think that this album was at all a reflection of that. Most of the songs sounded very similar, and the album carried on for 17 songs – I found myself continually wondering how many more songs I had to sit through. For the most part, I thought that the album had poor back-up vocals that made it, for lack of a better word, very cheesy. The title track is a good example of this, as well as Tears on my Tuxedo and All Tied Up. The album had a kind of puffed-up nature, making attempts at being sexy but couldn’t quite make it there.

Worth mentioning, though, was the collaboration with Lil’ Wayne on Pretty Lil’ Heart. The whole song has a much deeper, more sensual vibe courtesy of a lower octave and a fluid back beat. Lil’ Wayne’s intro was a surprisingly welcome change of tone and set the pace for the song. While the song used horns in a way that was familiar to the rest of the album, they fit perfectly in this number.

Some of the more upbeat tracks were Angel on Each Arm and I’m An Animal. Angel was the opening track, and while it has a strong beat, the lyrics were, again, nothing interesting. A lot of “baby”, “now, now, now”, “alright” and “yeah, yeah” indicated a lack of substance for me. Thicke used a kind of echo effect on himself, which started out kind of intriguing but ended up more irritating than anything by the end of the song. Given its title, Animal seemed to be an attempt at a dangerous, raw sound. Thicke spends a lot more time spelling the word animal and making laughable human/animal comparisons (“Don’t know what to do with my opposable thumbs”) than actually incorporating the ferocity of a beast into the song.