Social media heartbreak doesn't work, then. At least, it doesn't translate into album sales. Because Robin Thicke's sorrowful new album, 'Paula', named after his estranged wife Paula Patton - and largely interepreted to be a blatant ruse to get her back - has sold just 530 copies in the UK since it was released on 30 June, with The Guardian predicting that it's set to be the biggest musical flop of the decade.
It seems improbable that until the song 'Blurred Lines' was released in March of last year, we hadn't actually heard of Robin Thicke. A TMZ C-Lister for a good few years in the US, he wasn't on our pop cultural radar until he teamed up with Pharrell to produce arguably the most controversial music video in recent musical history. Whilst unfairly or otherwise, Pharrell largely escaped disdain and pretty fairly, Emily Ratajowski, the brunette model gyrating around Robin has become a GQ cover star and a Hollywood star in ascent (she will soon star opposite Ben Affleck in Gone Girl), it seems we are growing angrier with Robin by the day.
VH1's recent Twitter endeavour #AskThicke spectacularly bombed, with people tweeting Robin a slew of abuse and his new album - which had a 'rushed forward' release date, supposedly so he could, er, get his wife back quicker - selling just 25,000 in the US (relatively speaking, that's really low.) In terms of album reviews, Jim Farber of the New York Daily News hit the nail on the head when he said, 'Thicke's use of his fractured marriage as the linchpin of a promotional campaign gives the album a squirmy subtext.' And can someone please explain to us why Robin's face is covered in blood?
It seems that said squirmy subtext is stopping his music from selling, too. Despite the fact that 'Paula' is infinitely less offensive than the hit-maker 'Blurred Lines', it's a long, long way from its predecessor's 1.5 million UK album sales. We bought into 'Blurred Lines' - it was a massive commercial success. But it seems we aren't buying into 'Paula'. Or Robin.[
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.