The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 (2013) - Justin Timberlake

Under the lights & sound

Everybody get down, down

You know that she’s a killer

Watch it get down, watch it get down

Murder, murder

This second volume of Timberlake’s 2013 return to the studio got significantly more mixed reviews that the first volume.  And it’s even longer than volume one at a whopping seventy-four minutes.  But, frankly, I didn’t get a significant drop in quality at all.  I found this to be as good as the first album, if quite different.  This volume has a darker tone than the first one.  The first one was all about sincere love songs and sexy jams.  This volume is about being under the spell and heartbroken.  Of course, it’s still Timberlake, so this isn’t super-super dark; this isn’t Yeezus or anything.  True Blood is a fantastic ten minute take-off on Thriller and it’s testament to the genius of the track that the comparison isn’t entirely damning.  TKO and Amnesia both revolve around seeing an old-love that’s moved on with her life.  Amnesia is as edgy as Timberlake gets with numerous f-bombs.  Drink You Away is a bit different; it has more of a rock anthem feel as opposed to Timberlake’s typical R&B stylings.  And the album ends with a couple of sweet songs to walk us out on a high note and they’re both quite good, the lyrical Not a Bad Thing and the tender, minimal Pair of Wings (a hidden track).  My favorite track here is probably the darkest, Murder.  It’s ostensibly about a woman that’s devastatingly desirable: “Might end a man’s life with that innocent face . . . That girl is murder, murder.”  But there’s a surprisingly grim alternate interpretation that makes the song a real nightmare: “I really wanna take this under the ground, under the ground, under the ground/I would be down to go to that level.”  It’s got a stomping triplet riff and an altogether menacing sound and a great guest verse from Jay-Z; the duo from Suit & Tie are on their way to a funeral this time, it seems.  Regardless of whether or not this was necessarily intended to be the darker companion to the original, it’s a great record.  Timberlake’s time away wasn’t wasted; speaking of murder, he really killed it with 20/20.  4 stars.

tl;dr – companion to the first volume is darker & even longer, but still a masterpiece with a wider range of styles; Timberlake keeps on killin’ it.  4 stars. 

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The 20/20 Experience (2013) - Justin Timberlake

You are, you are the love of my life

You are, you are the love of my life

When Timberlake went into the studio to record this album in 2012, it had been six years since his last album.  You’d expect a creative talent like Timberlake to have built up a tremendous amount of creative juice in the realm of his music after six years away and you’d be right to do so.  This album is seventy minutes long and with ten tracks that makes for an AVERAGE of seven minutes per song.  If you pay attention to my reviews, you probably know that one of the things that most bugs me about modern music is the length of most albums; they never know when to quit.  So how did I react to this album with its super-long songs and its long running time?  Well, I loved it; it’s really a kind of pop R&B masterpiece.  Timberlake remains an astounding talent, as charismatic and brilliant as ever.  The songs here just work.  The high-energy Let the Groove Get In gets the bodies rockin’.  The gorgeous, ambient Blue Ocean Floor closes the album with a deeply evocative, beautiful tone.  The epic Mirrors, one of the best sincere love songs in ages, builds and builds with a soaring and evocative melody before collapsing into itself with an avalanche of overdubs that make for a true epic; at eight minutes, there’s not a second worth trimming.  Suit & Tie is a swaggering, confident tune that leads into the immaculate grooves of Strawberry Bubblegum in which Timberlake sells the most tired of clichés by sheer charisma and grooves.  Timberlake has ideas to spare.  Mirrors has two very distinct sections & Strawberry Bubblegum runs for a solid four to five minutes on the first groove, which is great, before suddenly switching to another one that’s even better for the remaining three minutes.  Get me on this: Timberlake saves the best hook from Strawberry Bubblegum for FIVE MINUTES into the song.  He’s utterly confident, with nothing to prove; he takes it as a simple assumption that people will still be listening to this eight minute track after five minutes.  There’s no reason to frontload the best stuff; obviously people are on board for the whole experience here.  Timberlake’s become an interesting actor, so it was easy to watch him step away from his musical career as we watched him develop as an actor.  But this is a welcome return to his old stomping ground and there’s not a beat missed on this immaculately produced, pitch-perfect album.  In an era of people trying to prove their albums are worth it by piling on too many songs and beating their songs into the ground, Timberlake justifies this pop epic with an effortless cool.  Welcome back, friend.  4 stars.

tl;dr – pop/R&B epic justifies its length with great grooves, immaculately perfect production and brilliant performances; great songs, great hooks, great music, a great album.  4 stars. 

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