Albums : Justin Timberlake : The 20/20 Experience

Albums : Justin Timberlake : The 20/20 Experience

Listen To Justin Timberlake : The 20/20 Experience

Who Is Justin Timberlake?
Justin Timberlake may be the quintessential pop star of the new millennium, a star who jumped from platform to platform on his way to establishing himself as something bigger than a star: he was a self-sustained empire. Timberlake began his rise as a TV star, performing on The New Mickey Mouse Club as a child in the '90s, but he earned his superstardom as one of the frontmen for *NSYNC, the most popular boy band of the turn of the millennium. Justin stepped away from the band just as its popularity crested, releasing the sleek Justified in 2002, its hit singles "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body" establishing him as a force outside the group and he consolidated that success in 2006 with FutureSex/LoveSounds, the album that generated his biggest hit, "SexyBack." After reaching this pop peak, he decided to pursue other ventures, choosing to concentrate on acting and entrepreneurship. Recurring appearances on Saturday Night Live proved to be among the show's most popular spots and he received acclaim for his performance in the 2010 Oscar-winning film The Social Network. Additionally, Timberlake established his own fashion imprint and record label, opened several restaurants, and, in 2011, invested in MySpace.

Timberlake's journey to stardom began in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born on January 31, 1981. He began performing early, appearing on the televised talent competition Star Search at the age of 11, singing under the name of Justin Randall. This was his first step into the big leagues, leading to him securing a spot on The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993. This cast would prove to be filled with future stars; in addition to Timberlake there were the pop singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, actor Ryan Gosling, and JC Chasez, who'd later join Justin in *NSYNC, the group manager Lou Pearlman assembled in the late '90s. Pearlman formed *NSYNC after the cancellation of The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1994, taking Timberlake and Chasez as his anchors and adding Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and Chris Kirkpatrick.

*NSYNC began their march toward stardom in 1996 when their first album appeared in Europe. Two years later, their eponymous debut was released in the U.S. and the group scored hits with "Tearin' Up My Heart," "I Want You Back," and "(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You." The latter reached the Top Ten, paving the way for the smash success of No Strings Attached in 2000. Upon its release in March 2000, the album sold an astonishing 2.4 million copies in its first week, setting a record that is unlikely to ever be broken. After generating the singles "It's Gonna Be Me" and "Bye Bye Bye," the group set to work on its next album, 2001's Celebrity. It was another massive hit, launching the Top Ten singles "Pop," "Gone," and "Girlfriend, but it proved to be the group's last album, as Timberlake's popularity was quickly eclipsing that of the rest of the group.

It didn't take long for Justin to release his first solo album. Justified appeared a little over a year after Celebrity and its gleaming, stylish surfaces — partially produced by the Neptunes and partially produced by Timbaland — suggested a new, mature, adventurous musician who was as much an R&B vocalist as he was a pop singer. Timberlake supported the album with a co-headlining tour with Christina Aguilera in 2003 and he ruled the airwaves with the singles "Like I Love You," "Cry Me a River," Senorita," and "Rock Your Body," not to mention the "I'm Lovin' It" jingle for McDonalds. He weathered a scandal in early 2004, when he tore off part of Janet Jackson's costume during their halftime duet at Super Bowl XXXVIII, but he bounced back nicely, winning Grammys that year for Justified and "Cry Me a River." He also launched William Rast, a clothing line.

As he worked on his second album with producer Timbaland, Timberlake found time to resume his acting career, taking on key roles in Southland Tales, Black Snake Moan, and Alpha Dog. Before any of these films appeared his second album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, was released, preceded by the single "SexyBack," a cool synthesized groove in the vein of Prince that established the tone for the album. "SexyBack" stayed at number one for seven weeks and its two sequels, "My Love" and "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude," also reached number one over the following year, a year that also saw Justin launch an international tour in support of the album.

Following the completion of the FutureSex/LoveSounds tour, Timberlake slowly stepped away from music. He sang with Madonna on her 2007 single "4 Minutes" and appeared on 50 Cent's "Ayo Technology" that same year, and he had other musical endeavors over the next few years, but his main focus was acting. Beginning in 2006, he frequently performed on Saturday Night Live, in 2007 he had a voice role in Shrek 3, and in 2008 he had a lead part in Mike Myers' The Love Guru. Two years later, Timberlake had his greatest acting success as Sean Parker in David Fincher's The Social Network; he quickly followed this with roles in Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits. In January 2013, after investing in three Los Angeles and New York restaurants, as well as MySpace, he released a new single, "Suit & Tie," co-produced with Timbaland. Along with a glitzy performance at the 2013 Grammy Awards and another SNL appearance, it set the stage for The 20/20 Experience, released that March. Later in the year, he appeared in the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis.

The 20/20 Experience Review
Consider 'N Sync's 2001 hit "Pop", a defensive track co-written by Justin Timberlake that takes aim at boy-band haters. "All that matters is that you recognize that it's just about respect," he sings. The song was on 'N Sync's final album, Celebrity, which sold nearly two million copies in the U.S. in its first week-- and by that point the group had gone platinum about 30 times over. Even back then, this desire for meaningful admiration was nagging at Timberlake. "Pop" is slyly referenced on "Strawberry Bubblegum", a love-as-sugar-rush space-soul trifle from the singer's third LP, The 20/20 Experience. "I'm gonna love you 'til I make it pop," he goes, emphasizing the last word with the exact same sense of joy as he did 12 years ago. But now there's no irked aftertaste. Justin Timberlake is respected, and he's using that cred to make an eight-minute love song with the word "bubblegum" in its title that astutely references Barry White, Drake-style ambient R&B, and Sly Stone. He's walking the walk and chewing gum at the same time.

The same can be said for the rest of The 20/20 Experience, which has Timberlake seamlessly conflating the last 40 years of pop, soul, and R&B into a series of warping seven-minute songs that shamelessly extol the joys of music and marriage. More ambitious and judicious than his first album, Justified, and more consistent than 2006's FutureSex/LoveSounds, the record mixes up not only genres and traditional song structures, but entire critical value systems. The poptimists who rode Timberlake's wave to post-guilty-pleasure virtuousness may decry its lack of three-and-a-half minute hits; old-schoolers may dismiss its simplistic themes. But by combining the direct warmth of a picture-perfect wedding with music that is complex and expansive, he's harkening back to an era when the biggest-selling album could begin with a six-minute, multi-part, groove-based epic called "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and another extended, expertly arranged, gloriously campy touchstone called "Thriller".

Within his own discography, Timberlake's current path can be traced back to one song, the Timbaland-produced "Cry Me a River". More than any other, that track-- which sounds as odd and gothic and heady today as it did in 2002-- made way for his current role as first-class pop vanguard. FutureSex, spearheaded sonically by Timbaland once again, developed the syncopated formula further, lengthening beats, adding scene-setting interludes, and generally approaching pop with the sort of rule-crushing abandon that is often desired but rarely achieved. But then Timberlake went into movieland, and Timbaland, along with many of his peers, went into Euro-schlock-land, and "SexyBack" became an ever-foggier memory, made more poignant because it marked a time and a collaboration that seemed completely over. Which is yet another reason why The 20/20 Experience is such a welcome comeback. It's not only about the return of a human being who can hold an entire stadium rapt for hours, but a producer who had seriously lost his way.

20/20 has Timbaland, along with protege Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, returning to the sounds that flipped so many ears at the beginning of this century: the Bhaṅgṛā rhythms that drive "Don't Hold the Wall", the squealing vocal samples of "Spaceship Coupe", the sinister synths of "Tunnel Vision". And the new twist is also a blast from the past: many songs here are augmented with live instrumentation and vocal harmonies that go back to Motown, Stax, and Trojan. The stunning soul strut "That Girl" samples reggae great King Sporty's "Self Destruct", with Timbaland and Timberlake essentially approaching retro-pop with a hip-hop mentality. It's then, it's now, it's the type of song that'll be around for a long while.

"That Girl" also sums up the album's overall message: "I'm in love with that girl, and she told me that she's in love with me," sings Timberlake, cleanly and sweetly. The rest of the record unspools that contented emotion-- presumably inspired by Timberlake's 2012 nuptials with actress Jessica Biel-- in various ways. He's high off of love on "Pusher Love Girl", he's enjoying a five-star reception with his head-turning date on "Suit & Tie", he's exploring the cosmos in a two-person vehicle on "Spaceship Coupe", where he sings, "Everybody's looking for the flyest thing to say/ But I just wanna fly away with you." The lines double as a love-dumb self-critique; though Timberlake cites Bob Dylan as an idol, he's no bard. This pop star is at his best when leaving intricacies to the music, like the voyeuristic, slightly creepy feeling of all-encompassing infatuation that imbues the swarming "Tunnel Vision", or on "Mirrors", which conveys both the arena-flattening power and pillowtalk intimacy of finding solace in another person across its eight minutes.

20/20 is akin to another recent album that successfully teased-out excitement from satisfaction, Beyoncé's 4. And like Beyoncé, Timberlake is looking to put himself above the fray of those pushing boom-boom beats to quick, repetitive, and oftentimes-numbing hits. It's a sensible strategy. Admittedly, pop culture wasn't built on sensible; instead, it rewards youth and conflict-- there's a reason why Rihanna has more #1 solo singles than JT and Beyoncé combined. Happy marriages, as a rule, do not sell records. But they could. And Timberlake is in a particularly opportunistic position to indulge in such aspirations. As a star who grew up in the money-printing CD era, he's got enough notoriety and loyalty to be able to challenge his audience without alienating them. So he's giving hopeless romantics just a little hope, one clattering seven-minute ode at a time.


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