Hey Guys, this is Jackson, one of Ben’s
co-hosts from Natural Double d20s. With my specialty being music and music reviewing,
I figured this blog could use some discussion on this medium. This will be the
first in a series of music reviews I do for the blog. Enjoy!
If 13 year old
me – the age I was at when JT released his last album – knew I was a fan of a
Justin Timberlake, he would enter an existential crisis. However, I have grown
up and matured since then [or would like to think so], and so has Timberlake. The 20/20 Experience (1 of 2)[1]
represents Timberlake’s most complete work to date, a fully realized artistic
piece. Timberlake takes the maturity and intelligence that he put into FutureSex/LoveSounds and develops them
further, to create the masterful work on the disc.
This
is not to say the LP is without flaws; it has several. Despite this, it is
still laudable as a whole body of work and represents a great artistic direction
for Timberlake to take up. The flaws I find with the album are probably just
based on my own musical sensibilities, so take them with a grain of salt.
One
of the strongest features of The 20/20
Experience is that it is filled with the sounds of old R&B and Soul. As
a friend noted to me as we listened to lead single “Suit & Tie,” the song
sounds like classic Marvin Gaye. Indeed the song drips with the same
soulfulness and melodic richness that filled Gaye’s 1972 masterpiece, What’s Going On. The harp is the heavy
lifter on this track, as it is that specific instrument that gives “Suit &
Tie” the Marvin Gaye, What’s Goin On
sound. Timberlake’s artistry and charisma lends itself extraordinarily well to the
Marvin sound, and is one of the classic sounds JT aims for on the LP.
Throughout
the disc, JT hits Motown-style falsetto, bringing one of American pop’s most classic
sounds to the foreground of the music. JT seemed to be highly influenced by
Motown, as two of the albums strongest tracks – “Pusher Love Girl,” and “Suit
& Tie” – sound like early and late, respectively, Motown tracks. Howver
they are not purely Motown, this is Timberlake’s modern take on classic R&B
and Soul, with Motown remixed with electronic music and backing vocals. I was
quite frustrated by these songs when in comparison to some of the disc’s weak
tracks like “Tunnel Visison.” In “Tunnel Vision,” specifically, Timberlake’s
over-produced voice almost blends in completely with the repetitive electronic
backing music; making the track sound generic amongst a trove of distinctly
original gems.
The
generic-ness of some of The 20/20
Experience’s songs is, as one might tell, my foremost complaint. With songs
like “Pusher Love Girl” and “Mirrors,” a much more modern (“neo”) soul
sounding, killer track, Timberlake proves that he is capable of making very
distinct music. And yet, he throws in
stuff that I could find on any sort of electronic or modern R&B record. The
overproduction of these tracks steals all of JT’s charisma and charm, one of
the major elements that make him a great entertainer and artist. My other
complaint is that JT seemed like he had too much material to try and put on one
record. Either way, many of the seven-minute plus songs on the LP will have
one-and-a-half to three minute outros that are a bit aesthetically different
from the rest of the track. Sometimes this is quite frustrating as I found the
last two minutes of “Strawberry Bubblegum,” to be much more enjoyable and interesting
than the first five – as a breakdown, the first five suffer from the same
overproduction as “Tunnel Vision” and others, while the last two represent the
neo-Motown sound that pervades the LP. For me, this creates a feeling of
disunity across the album, and the sense that, with some of these tracks,
Timberlake was throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck.
Overall
though, it is a good album [how can you not like an album where JT refers to
Jay-Z as a “ho”?]. It is not a great album, but certainly represents a great
step forward for Timberlake’s artistic ability. He took a gamble diverting from
his old “pop” sound, and I believed that gamble paid off. However, I believe
that JT has not yet realized the full potential of the music he is now making.
JT has a lot of good ideas on this album, and I hope that he takes some of
those ideas and runs with them.
Key Tracks: “Pusher Love
Girl,” “Suit & Tie feat. Jay-Z,” “Spaceship Coupe,” and “Mirrors.”
Rating: 7.5/10
- - Jackson
Sinnenberg, whose reviews can usually be found on The Rotation, WGTB Georgetown
Radio’s music blog.
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