Since Justin Timberlake‘s spectacular return to music earlier on this year, the world has eagerly anticipated new tunes from the ‘President of Pop’. Having smashed the charts back in March with one of 2013’s biggest-selling albums, ‘The 20/20 Experience’, JT has returned for a second round with ‘The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2′.
The album is kickstarted by ‘Gimme What I Don’t Know (I Want)’ which has quite an eerie sound to it – there is a lot of echo of Justin’s voice over an upbeat bassline, as he shows his predatory side. Following on, we are met with ‘True Blood’, sounding like it was written for horror film. With howling wolf sounds plus a combination of guitar, violin and steel drums, the track is pacy, carried along by a dizzying melody. ‘Cabaret’ is strongly reminiscent of Justin’s ‘Future Sex/Love Sounds’ album back in 2007, and is another upbeat tune featuring smooth rap vocals from Drake. The collaboration is a good one, if slightly crude, with lyrics such as ‘Fantasy play the role/And all these new moves that I’d like got me feeling like a stranger’, playing on Drake’s stripper past.
In ‘TKO’, released only last week, Timbaland features. With an electronic sound, complete with punchy chorus and effortless vocals from Justin, it falls only to ‘Take Back The Night’ in taking the crown for the best song on the album. Very similar to Michael Jackson‘s ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’, it is an eclectic mix of disco, R’n’B, soul and retro whilst maintaining a current vibe – a great dance track. Not one to disappoint with feature artists, long-term collaborator, Jay-Z joins in on sixth track, ‘Murder’ but when compared to ‘Suit and Tie’, it is a notably weak song from the duo.
‘Drink You Away’ sees the album take an unexpected turn into country. A soulful song and electric guitar giving it a rocky edge; the track is about heartbreak and is rather mismatched with the rest of the album. It seems to act almost as an interlude between ‘Murder‘ and ‘You Got It On’ – a smooth and sleek R’n’B ballad, with similarities to Chris Brown‘s ‘With You’.
Ninth track, ‘Amnesia’, drops – throughout the song – from a quick to slow tempo, allowing Justin’s vocals to come to prominence. Despite the layers of his voice making it seem like we’ve been taken back to the N-Sync days, the lyrics about a lost love being a‘stranger that I used to know’ are sung with powerful raw emotion. Penultimate pop-soul song ‘Only When I Walk Away’, is full of passion and conflict, as Justin seems to almost shout over the electric guitar riffs.
‘Not A Bad Thing‘, a sweet ballad about how it’s ‘not such a bad thing to fall in love with me’, ends the album. For his huge legion of adoring fans, that is quite literally music to the ears. However, the song has more laid-back, summer feel than the rest of the album and so is perhaps likely to be overlooked, given the time of year.
While ‘The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2′ is perhaps not Justin’s best album, his ability to master the R’n’B genre – as well as crossing over into soul, country and disco – proves his musical worth as one of the greatest all-round current artists. Being around 70 minutes long, the album becomes challenging to listen to in places, but on the whole, hats off the him for – once again – giving us sleek pop tunes with an unrivalled vocal range.
