After fending off two stylish robots and a last-minute push from a twerking young pop star, Robin Thicke stands alone on the podium, confetti falling, holding his well-earned Song of the Summer trophy to the skies. With the season’s top prize already in-hand, Blurred Lines the album sounds more like a leisurely victory lap than a hungry, determined pop album. There’s enough here to keep Thicke’s name on the charts for a while—“Ooo La La” is another hit in waiting—but the warmed-over disco and by-the-numbers dance filler risks limiting the R&B crooner to simply a one-summer wonder.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2013.