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Justin Timberlake 'The 20/20 Experience- Part Two'
Other | Wednesday 2nd October 2013 | Rhian
After several months of playing The 20/20 Experience Part One to death, Justin Timberlake, perhaps the most charismatic personality of the pop and R&B world, has finally released the next and final installment. The 20/20 experience is complete and brings with it a darker, more intense and sensual Justin.
On a recent performance for a very special Radio 1 Live Lounge at the BBC Radio Theatre, Justin compares Part One and Two in a cheekily apt analogy. He argues the first half is “true love, you’re a freshman in high school you meet that girl and you try to impress her parents” compared to the second which is “when you actually get to her house you realize she has an older sister and you sit down at dinner and the older sister gives you that look…that older…more experienced…a lot more zzzexual look.” (Yes, that’s sexual with a Z.) Clearly Justin is not only inventing his own style of music, starring in Hollywood blockbusters and charming women across the globe, but is also conceiving his own personal dictionary.
Hit tracks such as ‘Mirrors’, a song that produced one of the best videos of the year, not only for its clever cinematography or heart-breaking story-line, but because JT's body-popping, almost surreal dance is one of the sleekest routines seen this year - the video has become a worldwide phenomenon. Similarly it set the tone for a love-struck, serenading album that contained several lyrical and instrumental musical nods to the blues and swing music of the early 20th century. Part One, then, was a culmination of pop, R&B and electronica that could have provided a backdrop to any love-torn romance.
Part Two, as Justin states, is considerably more 'zexual'. Each track is underlaid with heavier bass, tenebrous lyrics and intense, chugging riffs. Justin’s second instalment of the 20/20 experience is clearly inspired by some of the darker themes expressed in his previous album, Future Sex/Lovesounds, such as infidelity, betrayal and lust rather than love. Yet it maintains the soundscape presented in Part One, with tracks such as ‘Cabaret’, and ‘Amnesia’ containing instrumentally, many of the elements of swing, jazz and blues, cleverly interlinked with rap, beat-boxing and electronic keys. Indeed, the album features some well-crafted verses from Drake in ‘Cabaret’ and Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s ‘Murder’ verse highlights the almost carnal nature of JT’s album as he comments on a more physical aspect of Yoko Ono, John Lennon and consequently The Beatles relationship: ‘Know that shit gotta be lethal, if that pussy broke up the Beatles, chocha ruined pop culture.’
It is evident that JT’s work continues to be superfluous in the electronic, R&B and pop world, as he manages to fuse the genres together with unique samples and catchy, body-popping riffs. Yet JT expands his repertoire further in the final installment of The 20/20 Experience through tracks such as ‘Drink You Away’, ‘Only When I Walk Away’ and ‘Not A Bad Thing’ which are considerably more blues-rock inspired than any of the other songs. ‘Not a Bad Thing’ is a cute little acoustic number that adds a little lightness to the album, compared to the murkier, chugging riffs of its former tracks.
JT has done it again, with a little more sensuality, a little more edge and plenty of charm. But we didn't really think he wouldn't, did we?
Top tracks: ‘Blindness’, ‘Murder’, ‘Amnesia’, ‘TKO’ and ‘Cabaret’.
Rhian stone
