*NSYNC (fine, ‘N Sync, if you want to be wrong) was the first band I ever got into. I’m not kidding. I was a weird kid. While now I’m scouring record stores in search of whatever dumb post-punk outfit I’ve fallen in love with in the given week, way back in the early 2000s I was invested in the musical adventures of Justin, Chris, Joey, Lance and J.C. I owned at least one of their DVDs. The height of my fandom came during the No Strings Attached and Pop eras, two albums chock full of singles I’m still willing to listen to. (Check out the “Bye Bye Bye” video. It’s like a time capsule.) Naturally, my favorite member was Justin Timberlake. Must have been the hair.
Of course, by the time the band had broken up and Timberlake was beginning to test the waters as a solo artist, I was in my I-will-not-listen-to-and-never-have-listened-to-Top-40 phase (read: I listened to a lot of classic rock). As such, I didn’t pay attention to Timberlake’s ascent from denim-wearing boy band member to real live pop star. I missed out on “Cry Me a River,” “SexyBack,” “What Goes Around,” “My Love,” everything. It was only until I picked up FutureSex/LoveSounds years later that I realized how much of a moron I was, and how much great music I had pushed away in the sake of some weird allegiance to an arcane form of musical purity.
Which of course brings us to where we are now. Me, a Timberlake fan just like I was when I was eight. And Timberlake, who couldn’t be in a more different position than he was in 1997, 2000 or 2006. No longer the annoying boy band star or the aspiring mainstream pop star, he’s somehow become a full-on pop icon. I mean, we were basically begging the dude to make more music. And now he has.
Thankfully, Timberlake didn’t decide to just rehash FutureSex for the sake of making a buck. While some would argue that his reentry into the music world seems forced, he definitely had his heart in making The 20/20 Experience. It’s different, noticeably so, and feels incredibly fresh in the currently EDM-dominated world of pop (all the great R&B and Carly Rae Jepsen notwithstanding). The first song, “Pusher Love Girl,” serves as a great example of this. It’s long (one song on the entire album is under five minutes), and it’s an organic sounding, R&B influenced pop number. It’s also great, one of the best songs on the album, and frankly makes the next track, lead single “Suit & Tie,” sound flat by comparison. Timberlake teamed up with Timbaland for this album’s production, and Timbaland mostly stays away from the space pop that dominated FutureSex. Instead, 20/20 is an album that sounds both old and organic. “Strawberry Bubblegum” even starts with some record scratches because of course it does.
However, some of the songs revert back to a more classic Timberlake style. “Spaceship Coupe” features a great guitar solo about midway through, and “Tunnel Vision” almost sounds like it belongs on an *NSYNC album. It’s too cool for that, but it gets close. “Mirrors” is the best of that bunch, a synth led track with a great chorus that doesn’t lose steam over its eight minutes.
Unfortunately, quite a few of these songs do lose steam over their length. Most of the lengthy numbers follow a predictable pattern–they go along for about five minutes and then, often quite suddenly, shift time signatures and start anew. For some, like “Strawberry Bubblegum,” this works really well. The second half of that song is probably better than the first. But for others, say, “Don’t Hold the Wall,” the second half ends up sound extraneous and unnecessary. Here it sounds like Timberlake just decided he wanted some long songs, so he threw on three more minutes. It’s forced, and it doesn’t work. In fact, I’m not even sure why some of these songs are as long as they are. “Blue Ocean Floor,” a Frank Ocean-esque number that’s easily the album’s worst track, glides around for about seven minutes without really doing anything interesting. Then there’s “That Girl,” which sits at about four and a half minutes and is brilliant for all of it. The album needed more songs like that, but Timberlake clearly decided against it.
That all being said, this is a very good album. It’s not a masterpiece, and it’s not FutureSex, but it’s still a wonderful pop album. Seeing as Timberlake rejoined the fray so smoothly with “Suit & Tie,” this shouldn’t come as a surprise. And when you get down to it, this album is great because, beneath some of the clutter, it’s a Justin Timberlake album. And Justin Timberlake albums are great. Apparently, he plans on releasing a second album in the fall, making this Part One. I’m looking forward to it.
Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to go listen to “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You.” That song doesn’t get enough love.
