Blurred Lines is the sixth studio album by American singer Robin Thicke. It was first released in Germany on July 12, 2013, and released in the United States on July 30, 2013, through Star Trak Entertainment and Interscope Records, as the follow-up to his fifth studio album, Love After War (2011). An R&B, dance-pop, and funk album, it features guest appearances from T.I., Pharrell, Kendrick Lamar, and 2 Chainz. Thicke, together with Cirkut, Dr. Luke, Pharrell, ProJay, Timbaland, and will.i.am, produced the record. The album's release was preceded by the release of four singles: the title track featuring T.I. and Pharrell, "For the Rest of My Life", "Give It 2 U" featuring Lamar, and "Feel Good".

Despite the album's mixed critical reviews and controversy over its lead single, Blurred Lines saw number-one debuts in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and top-five peaks in several other international markets. It was certified platinum in Austria and gold in Canada, France, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. To promote the album, Thicke embarked on the Blurred Lines Tour (2014), which traveled to North America and Europe, playing a total of 33 concerts. Blurred Lines was nominated at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album.

Background and composition Thicke detailed the album's concept in an interview with The Breakfast Club, stating, "The album is titled Blurred Lines. I've realized as I've gotten older that we all think we're living either in a black or white world, or on a straight path, but most of us are living right in between those straight lines. And everything you thought you knew, the older you get, you realize, 'Damn, I don't know nothing about this. I better pay attention, I better listen and keep learning.' So I think that, that's what I've been realizing these past few years."

Thicke also explained his foray into a more mainstream pop-oriented sound than his usual milieu. "The last year I've been wanting to have more fun. I think I took myself very seriously as an artist and I wanted to be like Marvin Gaye, and John Lennon and Bob Marley and these great artists and songwriters that sang about love and sang about relationships," Robin explained. "And then the last year, my wife and I just really wanted to have fun again, we wanted to be young again and we wanted to dance again and go out with our friends, so I wanted to make music that reflected that culture also."

According to AllMusic, it is an R&B album. Music critic Greg Kot called Blurred Lines a dance-pop album, while Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian characterized its music as upbeat "funk/soul". According to AllMusic's Andy Kellman, it has an array of glossy, pop-oriented dance tracks that deviate from the title track's "disco-funk" style, while other songs such as "Ooo La La" and "For the Rest of My Life" are more rooted in soul. Elias Leight of PopMatters said that the album's first half draws on the luxuriant funk and disco popular in the late 1970s, while the second half is characterized by club-oriented electronic sounds and a few ballads.

Copyright infringement case In 2014, the family of Marvin Gaye launched a suit against Thicke and Pharrell Williams as well as EMI April – the song publisher now owned by Sony/ATV – claiming similarities between "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's 1977 song "Got to Give It Up". On March 10, 2015, the jury found that Thicke and Williams had infringed on the tune, but not rapper T.I., who was also named as a party in the suit. The eight jurors also determined that the infringement was neither willful nor innocent. According to expert witnesses and musicologists, "Blurred Lines" was found to infringe, with liability affirmed on appeal, thereby establishing a convincing argument that the song was essentially stolen from Marvin Gaye. The jury awarded the Gaye family $4 million in damages, with profits of more than $1.6 million from Williams and more than $1,760,099 from Thicke. Statutory damages of $9,375 were assessed.

Singles The album's lead single is the title track "Blurred Lines", released on March 26, 2013. It officially impacted US Rhythmic radio on April 16, 2013, and Top 40/Mainstream radio on May 21, 2013. The video was released on March 20, 2013, and garnered more than a million views in the days after release on Vevo. Thicke said he had received the approval of his wife Paula Patton before shooting the video. The single peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as well as the Billboard R&B Songs chart. It became Thicke's most successful song on the US Billboard Hot 100, being his first to reach number 1 (he previously climbed as high as number 14 with "Lost Without U", back in 2007). The song reached number 1 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the top 10 in Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, France, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland.

The album's second single, "For the Rest of My Life", impacted urban adult contemporary radio on May 21, 2013 and was released digitally on June 3, 2013. The album's third single, "Give It 2 U" which features American rapper Kendrick Lamar, was released on July 2, 2013. "Give It 2 U" impacted Top 40/Mainstream radio in the United States on August 27, 2013. "Feel Good" was released as the album's fourth single. It also impacted US Top 40 radio on November 12, 2013.

Critical reception

Nick Catucci of Entertainment Weekly found its music predictable and characterized by unadventurous "boutique-lounge grooves." Slant Magazines Andrew Chan felt that, while the album has "an effervescent start", Thicke offers little to contemporary R&B on an album marred by "narcissistic come-ons" and "blunt pronouncements". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian said that Thicke's "blunt-instrument romantic technique" lacks dignity and keeps Blurred Lines from being "a pretty good album." In her review for The Observer, Hermione Hoby wrote that some of the songs are "passable party pabulum", while Thicke's obnoxious lyrics make the album less entertaining. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that his distasteful lyrics ruin the music's exciting mood.

In a positive review, Rolling Stone magazine's Rob Tannenbaum called it an optimistic, "near-perfect summer record" that improves over Thicke's previous albums, which he felt were dulled with his "expressions of angst". Annie Zale of The A.V. Club praised Blurred Lines for both its "sincere" songs, including "For the Rest of My Life" and "The Good Life", and for the less introspective songs' "playfulness", which she felt is the album's most appealing quality. In his review for USA Today, Brian Mansfield believed that Thicke's braggadocio improves the tastelessly sexual songs and that the lyrics "may make listeners laugh, wince or even groan, but that doesn't mean they won't get turned on, too." Spin magazine's Keith Harris wrote that Thicke "exaggerates and sings the hell out of" the limitations of his pickup artist character. Commercial performance In Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, Blurred Lines debuted at number one. On the UK Albums Chart, the album overthrew Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail for the top spot. Thicke's response to this performance on the chart was, "Thank you for making my new album Number 1 in the UK! This is a dream come true. I hope everyone enjoys it. Peace, love, and sexy!" In the states, its first-week sales were 177,000 copies. The album remained in the top-ten and continued to sell tens of thousands of copies per weeks for several weeks straight: 65,000 copies in its second week, 48,000 copies in its third. 46,000 in its fourth, 55,000 in its fifth. and 57,000 copies in its sixth. While only spending its first week at number one, it remained in the top-ten for all of these weeks. In its seventh week, the album fell out of the top ten for the first time, ranking at #14.

Track listing

Notes signifies a co-producer. "Go Stupid 4 U" contains excerpts from "Tive Razão", written and performed by Seu Jorge, and excerpts from "The Message", written by Edward G. Fletcher, Clifton Nathaniel Chase, Sylvia Robinson, and Melvin Glover, and performed by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Personnel Musicians

Robin Thicke – vocals (all tracks), keyboards (tracks 3–5, 9–13), background vocals (3, 4, 7–11), string arrangement (3, 11) Pharrell Williams – instruments (1) Andrew Coleman – arrangement (1) Joseph Augello – bass guitar (3–5); guitars, drums, percussion (3); lead guitar (4, 5, 11) Suzie Katyama – string arrangement (3, 11), strings conductor (3, 9, 11) ProJay – drums (4, 5, 9–11), percussion (4, 5, 10, 11), bass guitar (9–11), string arrangement (9), lead guitar (10) Lemar Guillary – trombone (4, 5, 10, 11) Rashawn Ross – trumpet (4, 5, 10) Donald Hayes – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone (4, 5, 11) Dr. Luke – all instruments, programming (6, 14) Cirkut – all instruments, programming (6, 14) Kendrick Lamar – vocals (6, 14) Bobby Keyes – guitar (9) Brandon Phillips – trumpet (11) Niles Hollowell-Dhar – all instruments (12, 13)

Technical

Chris Gehringer – mastering Tony Maserati – mixing (1, 3–5, 9–11) Demacio "Demo" Castellon – mixing, recording (2) Serban Ghenea – mixing (6, 14) Robin Thicke – mixing (7, 8) Robert Orton – mixing (12, 13) John Hanes – mix engineering (6, 14) Andrew Coleman – recording, digital editing (1) Denis Caribaux – recording for Robin Thicke (2) Chris Godbey – recording (2) Bill Malina – engineering (3, 9, 11) ProJay – recording (4, 5, 10) Derek "MixedByAli" Ali – engineering, recording for Kendrick Lamar (6, 14) Clint Gibbs – engineering (6, 14) Padraic "Padlock" Kerin – engineering (6, 14) Gelly Kusuma – recording (7, 8, 12, 13) Justin Hergett – mixing assistance (1, 3–5, 9–11) James Krausse – mixing assistance (1, 3–5, 9–11) Todd Hurt – recording assistance (1) Julian Vasquez – engineering assistance (2) Rachael Findlen –engineering assistance (6, 14) Dustin Capulong – engineering assistance (6, 14)

Visuals Young & Sick – art direction, packaging Terry Richardson – photography Todd Russell – custom typography

Charts

Weekly charts + Weekly chart performance for Blurred Lines Chart (2013) Peakposition Chinese Albums (Sino Chart) 30

Year-end charts + 2013 year-end chart performance for Blurred Lines Chart (2013) Position Australian Urban Albums (ARIA) 16 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 181 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) 148 Canadian Albums (Billboard) 39 French Albums (SNEP) 157 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 97 UK Albums (OCC) 92 US Billboard 200 36 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 11

+ 2014 year-end chart performance for Blurred Lines Chart (2014) Position US Billboard 200 130 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) 26

Decade-end charts + Decade-end chart performance for Blurred Lines Chart (2010–2019) Position US Billboard 200 143

Certifications

Release history + Release history for Blurred Lines Country Date Label Germany July 12, 2013 Interscope (Universal) France July 15, 2013 Polydor United Kingdom United States July 30, 2013 Interscope Canada Japan August 7, 2013 Universal International China October 27, 2013 Starsing Culture

Notes

Gaye was not credited as a songwriter, but a court later ruled that the song plagiarized Gaye's song "Got to Give It Up". Max is a pseudonym used by Paula Patton, Thicke's ex-wife. As with most international editions, the UK iTunes edition does not include the track "Go Stupid 4 U", so this edition has the Cave Kings remix of "Blurred Lines" as track 11.

References