This Tuesday, pop singer Robin Thicke released his latest album, simply titled “Paula.” The album is being marketed as a full-length plea for reconciliation directed at Thicke’s estranged wife, the actress Paula Patton. The couple separated in February, shortly after a series of public sightings of Thicke intimately touching and dancing with other women.

Unlike last year’s up-tempo (and controversial) single “Blurred Lines,” the new album finds Thicke striking a remorseful tone — or at least attempting to — as he reflects on his marital woes. Many have criticized Thicke for trying to win Patton back in such a public manner, saying the approach forces Patton into the spotlight whether she wants to be there or not. (Writing at The Atlantic this week, Sophie Gilbert said “Paula” is “one of the grossest, most manipulative records ever made.”) Others have questioned whether the couple’s split is just a publicity stunt.

For his part, in an interview with Hot 97 Tuesday morning, Thicke said that he hasn’t actually seen Patton since March or so.

“I haven’t seen her in four months,” Thicke told hosts Ebro Darden and Peter Rosenberg. “And you know what, we’re cool. She’s the best girl in the world, a great mother and still a good friend … But because we weren’t ever together anymore and I still had so much I wanted to apologize for and things I wanted to take responsibility for. So that’s pretty much what the album is about.”

“I’m a man. I messed up,” Thicke went on. “And I had to lie for a while, and then I stopped lying. That was actually good for me, because I was tired of lying. So this whole album is me revealing everything.”

Thicke also maintained that cheating wasn’t the reason he and Patton split, saying, “We’re apart because we just couldn’t be together anymore for a while. There’s a hundred different reasons, there isn’t just one.”

Later that day, Thicke faced a much more critical audience during a Twitter question-and-answer session tagged with #AskThicke, in which users pointedly accused him of disrespecting and manipulating the woman he’s supposedly trying to win back.

Check out more of Thicke’s Hot 97 interview in the clip above.