You know a guy has game if he can make a play for a one-night stand sound like a genuine desire to know you as as person - unless he’s actually sincere about wanting both. Mayer Hawthorne’s got it and he shows it on How Do You Do (Universal Republic). It’s pretty much a cross-section of everything a man might be thinking when trying to close the deal, but it’s more than that. Raunchy but gentle about it, he’s sort of the anti-Michael Buble. He’s done with the romantic wooing and ready to get down to the business of screwing.

There’s no lack of swagger present in these soul cuts – Hawthorne knows you want him as badly as he wants you. Check the Web: one Youtube commenter referencing “Get To Know You” expresses her desire “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSdYn97jaGwto be pounded to this song.” Smoothly laying it down, he’s got a slow, unhurried falsetto and knows how to use it. On “Get To Know You,” it’s too easy to pin the retro soul label here, especially when the song “Break Up To Make Up” by The Stylistics bubbles up as a melodic parallel. But it’s a throwaway observation at this point, because Hawthorne for all his clear Motown/R&B influences isn’t retro soul; he’s soul happening right now. He also plays all the instruments featured on How Do You Do.

“A Long Time,” a gritty one about hard times and keeping on keeping on, reminds me of 1960′s Marvin Gaye unrest a la “What’s Going On” with a dusting of ”Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” “No Strings Attached” takes you on a  tour of Hawthorne’s libido. The crooning hip-hop infused “Can’t Stop” stops for a break in the falsetto stylings and brings you home to Hawthorne’s natural tenor with no break in the theme of longing and heated lust as he asks to be allowed to hit it from behind; Snoop Dog joins the naughtiness here. “The Walk’s” sullen rhythmic crankiness will hook you quick with blunt lines like “From the moment I met you I thought you were fine/ But your shitty fucking attitude has me changing my mind.” Love goes sunnier side up on “You Called Me,” a breezy, sweet number.

Hawthorne deserves credit for becoming a new part of the answer to the question, “Where is all the good music today?”

4.5 / 5 bars

Mayer Hawthorne – Get to Know You by angelicaga

Mayer Hawthorne – The Walk by zokerx