Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
January 08 2007

Justin Timberlake
FutureSex / LoveSounds
Mainstream Pop
Jive; 2006

Justin Timberlake can notoriously deliver pop wonder, but with Timbaland providing both beats and influence this album is able to break free from being merely a container for top 40 singles that are irresistible when drunk into an album that teases a journey and one that's actually rewarding to listen to through.

The preludes and interludes littered between tracks highlight this. The soulful, down-tempo breakdown post LoveStoned and the parabolic 'What Goes Around... ...Comes Around' combination are both quality examples. However the funky, clanging and downright droning 'Let Me Talk To You' prelude, whose effect is simply to make the start of the great 'My Love' sound impossibly better thanks to the juxtaposition between ugly clashes before the engaging, pop beauty, is the best example of this technique.

There is no shortage of hits though. Guest stars such as 3 6 Mafia and T.I. bring radio molesting epics by contributing to 'Chop me Up' and, perhaps one of the singles of the year, 'SexyBack' respectively.

There is the occasional fizzer, such as the Michael Jackson "flattering" 'Losing my Way'. In this track JT sings eight year old Jenny's award winning entry into the Annual U.S. "Why Drugs Are Bad" Elementary School Poetry Competition ("Hi my name is Bob and I work at my job I make forty-something dollars a day") before the rest of her class patronisingly provide the chorus' backing vocals. However tracks like this only help to keep the frustrating JT in a debonair, brilliant but still human, light. This just makes the rest of his songs more endearing.

8.7 / 10

Viewed 365 times

1 Horrid 2 Poor 3 Mediocre 4 Swell 5 Genius

This Music is rated 4.0 from 2 votes.

 1 COMMENTS: