That Justin Timberlake has been making up for life amomg the lions this year, with maybe two hours plus of new music of which maybe 90 minutes is first rate. It is all modern dance pop mosic with hip hop flavor in your ear ear: very electronic, very processed soulfulness with songs that seem to be playing through different open lit windows but are too settled on Timberland’s new spundscapes to merge into anything quite like a final pop move for the 21st century.
But I prefer 2 of 2 to 1 of 2 because I prefer my dance with a harder bassedge and this has there. If you’ve heard the two singles you’ll have an idea of the albums strengths and also its weaknesses, it sounds really good, but not really memorable. The sound is good enough to push throughsongs that aren’t particularly memorable.
Mostly recorded at the same time as 1 of 2, it is a grittier album with extended jams aplenty and no “Pusher Girls” to mention and also nothing as memorable as “Mirrors” except for the pentultimare song, the absolutely terrific “Not A Bad Thing” which isn’t the whatever sound its title implies but indeed a knock out ballad both albums would have improved with vastly in the studio. The very next song, a “hidden track” is awful, funnily the best and worst of the 22 songs(not a cycle really, don’t project) next to each other.
“Not A Bad Thing” is such a sweet come on, it seems to make mush of our emotions and “If I Had Wings” such a lachrymose piece of crap you wonder if r. kelly co-wrote it. But once you’ve heard those two and the two singles “TKO ” and “Take Back The Night” you might be excused for thinking you don’t really need the rest. But “Only When You Walk Away” needs no reason for being really, it is a powerful pece of dance rock with staggerring guitr pieces sharpening their knives. And then start from the beginning again and you are not skipping any tracks… but you aren’t putting anything on repeat either.
1 of 2 had stuff that stuck out and felt out of place, it had shadings. And 2 of 2 doesn’t have anything of the sort, it is a dance album till you reach the last two ballads and if taken as a major statement it falls on its face but who expects a major statement frim Timnberlake. When has that ever been his thing?
This isn’t state of the art, Timberland is a little out of time for one thing, but it functions as a a 22 song dance suite with the occassional song jutting out. It has scope but not depth and I admire it and enjoy it.
Grade B+