Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
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Music Reviews of FutureSex / LoveSounds
Music Review: Who Would Justin Timberlake Model His Career On
Rating: 1 Stars
. . . . if there had never been a Michael Jackson? Let's see, how `bout:
A) Lionel Richie
B) Bob Seger
C) Michael Bolton
D) Lou Reed
Seriously, this album exemplifies the state of today's R `n' B, which is so unoriginal and frantically imitative of previous musical stand-outs, that its sounds all blur into one bleary, beat-heavy mess. In the eighties, there were startlingly original artists like the aforementioned MJ, Prince, Madonna, and others, and there was also a second tier of imitators like, let's say, Jody Watley or James Ingram, who couldn't hold a candle to those originals, but who did manage to carve out decent careers singing mush for the masses. Today's R `n' B is populated, crammed really, by "stars" who aspire to be like those originals, too, but they only reach that second tier of talent and product. There are no really standout talents. I blame Disney, who manufactured the leaders of this plastic, interchangeable style - Christina, Britney, Justin - and set the tone for much of the rest. Most of their albums are "collaborations" with whomever the hot beatmasters may be at any given minute, but the results usually turn out pretty much the same. The "lyrics" on this JT album are some of the lamest ever put to paper, if they even were put to paper, rather than made up during the recording sessions. Justin alternates between singing gooey romantic lines or pathetic "dirty" "street" lines, and he and his collaborators work hard to get our feet moving. But it's all just a batch of throwaway pap product, manufactured to sell rather than to have any real long-term emotional/intellectual impact. Justin's singing is just okay, pretty affected, and he seems to have a winsome personality on TV. But he's really quite a mediocre talent, without an original bone in his body, and this album's bland sameness and unwillingness to take any real chances undermine what little ambition JT may have for its staying power. I feel bad for today's young audience who think this is "exciting", because they have only this kind of stuff fed to them.
Music Review: Tell Me, Is This Fair?
Rating: 5 Stars
Indeed it is. Topping the Billboard Hot 100 proved to be a simple accomplishment for Justin Timberlake, who happens to be sitting on an audible goldmine. FutureSex / LoveSounds is a mix of sounds proven to get the club moving and set the mood (no pun intended).
Building from sounds of the past and present, Timberlake, along with producers Timberland and Danjahands, has fashioned a successful CD into which he has put a lot of himself. He wrote the lyrics, beatboxed, and even played the piano on the last track, "Another Song".
Each track stands on its own, yet fits very well into the grand scheme of the album. On the first listen, it might be hard for one to tell whether Justin meant for "Sexy Ladies" to sound like an actual song or an interlude between the tracks "SexyBack" and "My Love". Despite this minor confusion that might be brought on by the mere slow pacing of "Sexy Ladies," the album actually moves quite quickly. Of my favorites is "LoveStoned," which infuses the JT trademark beatbox with bass and symphony, accompanied with the lyric "I'm love stoned and I could swear/That she knows". Though I do tend to lean towards a few songs on the album, I do feel that Timberlake has done well by refraining from the use of too many tasteless lyrics.
With that having been said, JT's sophomore effort is a very grand maturation. In fact, the only transposition (in terms of the actual sound) to be found on FutureSex / LoveSounds from Justified is "Cry Me a River," which would clearly fit in on either album.
Some might be disappointed with the sheer length of a few songs on this album. "What Goes Around..." reaches roughly 7:28 on the album, which has been cut down drastically for radio play (and which may be a reason it only stayed on the #1 spot of the Top 100 for a week [so far]). I do not mean to detract from the rest of the album, because this is clearly a strong effort by Justin Timberlake, who seemes poised to conquer mainstream music with this collection of songs.
- Fh
Music Review: The Sexy was already here, but I likes 5 Stars
This is probably the third greatest CD in the history of the world, behind Hasselhoff(just put them all under one title because they are all unreal) and Centerfield by John Fogerty. JT is just off tha hook with dance jams that make me breakdance like I won't get dinner if I don't slap the room around with a moonwalk. He also slows it down so you can come in high and tight with your sweet muffin. Squeeze the muffin turbo! I'm a great dancer, I know that is assumed, but this CD takes me to another level not seen since Boogaloo Shrimp tore the wall off the place in Breakin 2, electric boogaloo. I walked into my favorite club the other night, Frankendance, and "Sexyback" was playing on the system. I took off my sequin robe and it was Mcbowlerpimp cold lampin. I was doing moves that no one had ever seen or smelled before. I moonwalked in a rhombus pattern!! There was no name for that so we called it chunderwinkles. I was on fire, so they sprayed me down with an extinguisher and I kept going. I was getting women's numbers in the middle of dance moves. I know, you can't pull that off. Jabs had to grab a pen and paper because I couldn't keep up with all of the offers of love for the evening. I can take the game to levels not seen since Ricky Schroeder on Silver Spoons. I tell you this story to lay out my only complaint about this CD. JT didn't bring the "sexy" back. I ran a newspaper ad in July of 2003 declaring that I had decided to bring the sexy back. I was laying low for awhile and locked the sexy in a treasure chest like a pirate would have. I didn't think the world was ready for sexy with everything going on in the middle east. In July of 03, I figured I would take the sexy out of the box and bring it back. I brought it back at 10 lies in 03. It was front page news in the Syracuse paper the next day. Sexy was back. I'm OK with JT taking it worldwide, but I thought I would let everyone know what's up. Average and me were close when I was 4, but I moved 3 time zones from it the next year and haven't looked back.Music Review: Fox Special: When talentless hacks attack!
Rating: 1 Stars
A heinous crime has been committed here ladies and gentlemen, and the victim is music in general, which has been completely shattered by the junk spewing out of this man's mouth.
I understand perfectly well that every human being has his/her own tastes. But for the life of me I cannot understand how music like this gets popular. How a song like Sexy Back got to #1 on the charts would be a perfect case study for a large group of sociologists. This song is all special effects and zithering; if these were turned off, Justin's voice would resemble more closely the sound a certain orifice makes after consuming a three-bean salad. I remember a record producer saying once that he could make a cactus into the next popstar, and though I thought it was humorous at the time, I now realize that he really wasn't joking at all.
Why is it that every popstar nowadays wants to forge some sort of phony youth where they were trapped in a violent ghetto? Have these people ever been within 50 miles of a REAL ghetto? Apparently it's somehow considered heroic to have peddled drugs to children, shot, maimed, or killed others, and general behaved as a degenerate sadist (see that scumbag 50 Cent's life for a perfect example). Things that are uncool are working hard in school, saving money for your future, saying no to illicit drugs, and generally trying to make a positive contribution to society. Have we sunk so low as a society where it's cooler to have been a criminal than to have lived your life honestly and gained everything through ability, merit, and hard work?
Which brings me to a wider problem; what the heck is going on with the music industry? Take one look at the local top 40 to see what I mean. There's not a single shred of artistic value in there. It's all the same garbage, copied over and over, and sold to the idiotic masses who swallow it all and make these dreadful embezzlers tons of money. It's a pitiful joke.
Music Review: CurrentTimberlake/AlbumReview
Rating: 4 Stars
The title of this album is FutureSex/LoveSounds. At first glance, this might cause you to think that the two overarching themes of the album are 1) FutureSex and 2) LoveSounds. This however is not the case. The sex is pretty ordinary but the sounds are out of this world.
What we're really dealing with are FutureSounds and Sex/Love, and the FutureSounds are amazing, innovative, and unique for most of the album. The sound texture is euphoric, almost psychedelic. A lot of synthesizer use, with a few obscure instruments and the drum kit. The rhythms and melodies are all hookworthy.
The Sex/Love, on the other hand, is pretty bland. Timberlake is a good lyricist but there's not much depth or complexity to anything he says. Just tune out and feel it. Get LoveStoned. My favorite tracks are: "FutureSex/LoveSound," "SexyBack," and "My Love." The track "Chop Me Up" is catchy, but I feel like Timberlake doesn't muster a good delivery for hip-hop. Three-6 Mafia's section on this track, however, is fantastic.
Overall, the album contains a lot of superlative music, but just as much sprawling normalcy and a little bit of wasted time ("Losing My Way"). This would be a 5-star forty minute album, but at nearly seventy minutes, it starts to drag. And is there seriously a choir backup on "Losing My Way?" Whose bright idea was this song? Absolutely insipid. So definitely check out this album for its aural aesthetic, but don't expect to get your mind blown by a few tedious "mother@%#!ers" and well-tread lyrical narratives.
As for the case of the title, I think it is properly interpreted with the following syntax: Future [Sex/Love] Sounds. "Sex/Love" here is a compound word representing a unique feeling or quality, not simply the sum of its parts, but a representation of a primal and wordless instinct. So they are Future Sounds about Sex/Love.