Time Flies When You're Having Fun | |
Type: | studio |
Artist: | Smokey Robinson |
Cover: | Smokey Robinson - Time Flies When You're Having Fun.jpg |
Alt: | Robinson smiling in a recording studio |
Genre: | Soul |
Language: | English |
Prev Title: | Timeless Love |
Prev Year: | 2006 |
Next Title: | Now and Then |
Next Year: | 2010 |
Time Flies When You're Having Fun is a studio album from American soul music singer Smokey Robinson, released in 2009. The release coincided with Robinson's 50th anniversary as a musician, with a return to the classic quiet storm sound that he pioneered in the 1970s and has received positive reviews from critics.
Editors of AllMusic Guide scored this album three out of five stars, with critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine considering this album "a return to the coolly simmering quiet storm that was his stock in trade during the '70s and '80s" with "impeccably tailored vocals". Writing for Rolling Stone, Mark Kemp gave this album three out of five stars, noting the singer's "sterling tenor". In the Culture Desk segment of The New Yorker, this album was named Album of the Week, with the review opining "it’s not advisable to say that it’s good or bad, at least not in simple terms", as Robinson's quiet storm sound and vocals are always high quality. Lloyd Bradley of BBC News noted not only the singing, but Robinson's songwriting, exhorting readers to "take any one of this set’s 12, beautifully-crafted vignettes that deal with just about every aspect of love – lost, found, enjoyed, unrequited and so on – telling stories in a way that will mean something to just about anybody". Mikeal Wood of Billboard gave this album four out of five stars, calling this "mellow vintage-soul disc that finds the Motown maestro in remarkably fine voice as he flexes his signature falsetto over supple, unhurried live-band arrangements long on tasty licks and laid-back grooves".
All songs written by Smokey Robinson, except where noted
Time Flies When You're Having Fun reached 10 on Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and 59 on the Billboard 200.