How Do You Do Universal Republic***

It's steady-as-she-goes for Andrew Cohen on his second album as retro soul and doo-wop throwback Mayer Hawthorne. The skinny white boy enjoyed quite a deal of success with debut album A Strange Arrangementand its redux Motown trimmings, so there's little surprise that How Do You Dopicks up the baton where its predecessor left off. What's striking is that Hawthorne's songwriting is plusher and braver throughout, as he adds more oomph to fantastic, endearing tunes such as A Long Time(his ode to Detroit) and Dreaming. He's still standing in the shadows of Motown, of course, with the Smokey Robinson classics in his hand. But if there was a fear that A Strange Arrangementwas a bit of a pastiche, all such concerns can be put aside now. Hawthorne really has what it takes to keep on trucking with soulful heartbreakers. See mayerhawthorne.com

Download tracks: A Long Time, Dreaming