Even earlier than the streaming period, Justin Timberlake understood the elemental significance of an attention-grabbing opening monitor. With a sweet-talking introduction from Pharrell Williams, “Señorita” opened his solo debut Justified. “FutureSex / LoveSound,” the title monitor on his sophomore launch, packaged lustful craving with techno-R&B. And when he returned with The 20/20 Expertise seven years later, “Pusher Love Lady” served as an eight-minute opening opus of a musician as curious about — and able to — seducing a lover as he’s a crowd. But when the “Haters gon’ say it’s faux”-isms of Man of the Woods opener “Filthy” was the primary indication of the plot and charisma being misplaced, then “Memphis,” the primary music on Timberlake’s sixth studio album The whole lot I Thought It Was, requires the association of a search get together.
Its minimalist entice manufacturing is functionally transportive, utilizing distortion to create the sensation of a tape being rewound as Timberlake travels again in time. He returns to not the swanky cocktail lounge, bustling membership, or blistering dive bar settings of these early albums, however to his Tennessee hometown as a youthful man. After three minutes of ruminating on the strain and early guarantees of fame — the cash, vehicles, and alcohol that flowed to him as a reigning pop prince — Timberlake begins rapping. “I used to be method too far out on the earth, however I nonetheless placed on for my metropolis,” he spits, marking the beginning of a deeply disorienting transition. “I used to be handing out an excessive amount of milk cash, an excessive amount of kitten, and ass, and titties.”
It might’t be understated how jarring this monologue is. This is identical man who introduced attractive again and in some way injected Timbaland’s “Carry Out,” a music that primarily compares a lady’s physique to a late-night Burger King run, with amusing swagger. It admittedly feels unproductive and nearly unfair to match the musical run of Timberlake’s twenties to that of his forties — there are particular heights which are merely now not in his attain throughout the ever-shifting panorama of pop he as soon as dominated. However in some ways, The whole lot I Thought It Was implores its viewers to do precisely that. It’s a purposeful nostalgia play that, at instances, lives up to now to a fault.
“I used to be enjoying it for folks round me. They’re like, ‘Oh, this appears like all the things we all know you for,’” Timberlake, 43, just lately instructed Apple Music. “That kind of phrase, in a method or one other, was within the air. And I believed to myself about how among the songs are extra introspective and a few of them are extra what I feel folks know me for.” To fill each of those areas, the album spans 18 songs, purportedly trimmed down from 100 although it may have stood to chop 5 – 6 entries, beginning with “Memphis.” That may have left “Fuckin’ Up the Disco,” an homage to his personal “Let the Groove Get In,” because the album’s opening monitor — a place to begin that motions in the direction of what does work concerning the album versus the locations wherein it utterly falls flat.
The complete horn part backing “Fuckin’ Up the Disco” assists Timberlake in shaking off no matter nerves he might have felt returning along with his first album in six years. “You searching for worship, child, properly hey, I received a mantle,” he quips. “Obtained my Gucci Crocs on proper now, however we will slide like sandals. Let me flip you want a pattern.” There’s a lightness to his efficiency that returns on “Infinity Intercourse,” one other funk-fueled journey that channels Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall with the identical reverence Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak shared for Seventies soul on Silk Sonic’s debut. And when he switches on the depth with “Technicolor,” all seven minutes spotlight one of the best components of The 20/20 Expertise: earnest craving, stellar instrumental preparations, and range-showcasing vocal manufacturing.
This recurs on “Drown,” the percussive single that tries on the identical pensive melancholy as “Cry Me a River,” solely with out the tabloid drama. “Liar,” with a visitor look from Fireboy DML, may go for an addition to NSYNC’s No Strings Connected in a method that makes “Paradise” — the album’s precise characteristic with the boy band — really feel disjointed. Maybe a testomony to NSYNC’s markings on the boy band blueprint, the music sounds prefer it may have simply been carried out by One Route, or the Jonas Brothers — however at that charge, so do the trite deep cuts “Love Is Battle” and “Favourite Drug.” Even Maroon 5 beat him to “What Lovers Do.” In the meantime, “Egocentric” and “Alone” echo Nick Jonas and Shawn Mendes, respectively, doing their finest Timberlake impressions to various levels of success. And “Play,” satirically, is JT doing his finest Prince.
“It’s enjoyable Justin — it’s like FutureSex/LoveSounds however nothing too heavy, simply providing you with what you count on from us,” Timbaland instructed Selection final yr concerning the album. The producer solely seems on 5 songs throughout the file, which primarily options Timberlake co-producing with Danja, Louis Bell, and Cirkut. Making an album rooted in what you imagine another person desires from you feels counterproductive to the inventive course of by itself, however to listen to him pulling pages from his personal playbook is equally confounding. When “Mirrors” and “Till the Finish of Time” have already set the bar for ballads, what are we meant to make of “Situations,” which closes the album? On the very least, this new batch of songs will mix into the setlist for Timberlake’s forthcoming tour extra seamlessly than something on Man of the Woods ever managed to.
Timberlake just lately instructed Apple Music that The whole lot I Thought It Was is his “finest work” but. It’s not. This was really disproven in the course of the very first music. However almost each monitor on the file having a one-to-one parallel to different moments in his discography does really feel like a well timed reminder. As retroactive criticisms have emerged concerning the methods wherein Timberlake has flourished on the expense of the ladies round him, as Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos just lately wrote, “it has even led to revisionist historical past, with many fairly egregiously claiming that his profession has all the time been middling and even useless within the water for for much longer than is definitely true.” You may name Timberlake numerous issues, however by no means a mediocre performer or an insignificant determine in pop historical past. Not solely does he have the hits to show it, now he additionally has a whole album of songs that really feel like B-sides to make an ironic case for his once-gilded greatness.
