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Justin in Timbaland
FutureSex/LoveSounds is a freaky, great, avant-garde pop record.
By Jody Rosen
Posted Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, at 7:45 AM ET
The new album by Justin Timberlake isn't particularly sexy. This should be a problem. When you call your record FutureSex/LoveSounds, brag in your lead single about "bringing sexy back," and give your other songs titles like "Sexy Ladies" and "Love Stoned," certain expectations are raised. The term "FutureSex" holds the promise of freaky, science fiction-style eroticasomething involving cyborgs, maybe, or the Orgasmatron from Woody Allen's Sleeper. But Timberlake's vision of sex and seduction is thoroughly grounded in 2006in thuggish pickup lines and hip-hop clichs about hookups in nightclub VIP rooms. ("Let me make an indecent proposal/ Let me take you to the back and do what we're supposed to.") It's not an act that Timberlake is well-equipped to pull off. He's a fine singer, but his feathery falsetto is hardly the world's most macho instrument. Even on "SexyBack," with his voice distorted into a crackly roar, he still sounds like a pipsqueak.
None of which really matters, because FutureSex/LoveSounds is one of the more exciting pop records in a long time. The sex theme is just window dressingthis album is all about sonic surprise. On Justified (2002), Timberlake graduated from 'N Sync to adult megastardom, channeling the genial disco-funk of Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson. Timberlake could have chosen to solidify his status as the new King of Pop, but with FutureSex/LoveSounds he's gone wildly experimental, drenching his songs in a hallucinatory swirl of hip-hop beats and ambient electronica. It's by far the most avant-garde record ever issued under the name of a platinum-selling former boy-band stara category that includes Michael Jackson.
The man behind the FutureSounds is Tim Mosley, better known as Timbaland, who co-produced 11 of the album's dozen tracks. Timbaland was laying low for a couple of years, but he returned with a vengeance in 2006, contributing several terrific songs to Nelly Furtado's album Loose, including the inescapable hit "Promiscuous." Quite simply, Timbaland is the most ingenious popular musician of the last decadethe man who brought minimalist hip-hop; stark, digital R & B; and all kinds of outrageous invention to the Billboard charts. (He also closed the gap between rap and R & B and post-rave dance music, pioneered hip-hop Orientalism, and did about a dozen other groundbreaking things.) The hallmarks of Timbaland's stylesnare- and kick-drum hits on odd accents; bristling electronic high-hats; quirky, infectious little melodies built from synthesizer squiggles and sound effectswere long ago absorbed into the pop mainstream. But none of Timbaland's many followers have matched his knack for supplying fresh sonic shocks every couple of bars, an art that was most festively on display in the extraordinary hit singles he produced from 2001 to 2003 for Missy Elliott, his longtime muse.
www.slate.com/id/2150107/
Justin in Timbaland
FutureSex/LoveSounds is a freaky, great, avant-garde pop record.
By Jody Rosen
Posted Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, at 7:45 AM ET
The new album by Justin Timberlake isn't particularly sexy. This should be a problem. When you call your record FutureSex/LoveSounds, brag in your lead single about "bringing sexy back," and give your other songs titles like "Sexy Ladies" and "Love Stoned," certain expectations are raised. The term "FutureSex" holds the promise of freaky, science fiction-style eroticasomething involving cyborgs, maybe, or the Orgasmatron from Woody Allen's Sleeper. But Timberlake's vision of sex and seduction is thoroughly grounded in 2006in thuggish pickup lines and hip-hop clichs about hookups in nightclub VIP rooms. ("Let me make an indecent proposal/ Let me take you to the back and do what we're supposed to.") It's not an act that Timberlake is well-equipped to pull off. He's a fine singer, but his feathery falsetto is hardly the world's most macho instrument. Even on "SexyBack," with his voice distorted into a crackly roar, he still sounds like a pipsqueak.
None of which really matters, because FutureSex/LoveSounds is one of the more exciting pop records in a long time. The sex theme is just window dressingthis album is all about sonic surprise. On Justified (2002), Timberlake graduated from 'N Sync to adult megastardom, channeling the genial disco-funk of Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson. Timberlake could have chosen to solidify his status as the new King of Pop, but with FutureSex/LoveSounds he's gone wildly experimental, drenching his songs in a hallucinatory swirl of hip-hop beats and ambient electronica. It's by far the most avant-garde record ever issued under the name of a platinum-selling former boy-band stara category that includes Michael Jackson.
The man behind the FutureSounds is Tim Mosley, better known as Timbaland, who co-produced 11 of the album's dozen tracks. Timbaland was laying low for a couple of years, but he returned with a vengeance in 2006, contributing several terrific songs to Nelly Furtado's album Loose, including the inescapable hit "Promiscuous." Quite simply, Timbaland is the most ingenious popular musician of the last decadethe man who brought minimalist hip-hop; stark, digital R & B; and all kinds of outrageous invention to the Billboard charts. (He also closed the gap between rap and R & B and post-rave dance music, pioneered hip-hop Orientalism, and did about a dozen other groundbreaking things.) The hallmarks of Timbaland's stylesnare- and kick-drum hits on odd accents; bristling electronic high-hats; quirky, infectious little melodies built from synthesizer squiggles and sound effectswere long ago absorbed into the pop mainstream. But none of Timbaland's many followers have matched his knack for supplying fresh sonic shocks every couple of bars, an art that was most festively on display in the extraordinary hit singles he produced from 2001 to 2003 for Missy Elliott, his longtime muse.
www.slate.com/id/2150107/
