Not only did Justin Timberlake successfully bring sexy and R&B back, he managed to make an album that has brought legitimacy back to pop music.
FutureSex/LoveSounds starts with the title track – a bass-driven dance hit that will be sure to please “SexyBack” fans.
After giving the rest of the CD a listen, it became obvious that “SexyBack,” this summer’s hot track, is lyrically, musically and vocally the weakest song on the album.
The biggest complaint is Timberlake’s ever-present producer Timbaland. He produces, he raps, he sings, he talks – he does too much. The moments where he is alone, he shines, but as soon as one of his collaborators joins in, the song loses its luster.
The next few tracks follow the same bouncy dance feel that will please any club goer, but the first three tracks are so similar; they even share the word “sex” in the title. It starts to become dull. But the second half more than makes up for it.
The first memorable track is “LoveStoned/I Think She Knows Interlude.” At first, the song sounds very predictable, in regards to what Timberlake has shown with the first few tracks. However, about four and a half minutes in, everything changes. The song changes tempo, dynamics, instrumentation – it changes your perception of the Sounds.
For the first time on the album, Timberlake sings backed not by thumping bass, but by dissonant guitar, a dominant string section and a dynamic piano line. This song marks the beginning of what makes this album good.
The next song, “What Goes Around … Comes Around Interlude,” will surely please fans of “Cry me a River.” Timberlake is at his most vindicated – and vindictive – in this song, with lines like “When you cheated girl/my heart beated girl/ … tale as old as time/girl you got what you deserved.” The only problem is the Coolio-like vocals in the background that are reminiscent of “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
Despite that, Timberlake has managed to create pop songs with musical dimensions. Each song is layered, dense and longer than four minutes. That may not sound like a big deal, but many pop songs never reach the four-minute mark – Sounds has nine songs longer than five minutes.
The two best tracks are back-to-back toward the end of the album. The first is “Losing My Way,” a tale of a cracked-out man named Bob. Although the lyrics are trite at times, the storytelling shows a side of Timberlake’s songwriting that has not been visible in past works.
The next is “(Another Song) All Over Again.” This is undeniably Timberlake’s most under-produced song and it works to his advantage. This song is not rap and it is not rock, it’s a piano ballad that works flawlessly, showing Timberlake is at his best when the music is scarce and his vocals take center stage.
Timberlake is responsible for the return of sexy, and for that, we all should want to be like him.
Contact reporter Michael Greenwald at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
