September 26, 2006 @ 12:46 pm

Justin - FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)

Jon Caramanica

Email this article Print this article Send us a tip

And so, after shooting a few indie films, Timberlake returns to music with new purpose: Rather than being seen as a boy of hormones, Justin wants to be a Man of Ideas. right While his 2002 debut, Justified (Jive), was Justin’s naked play for mass appeal, FutureSex is his art project, a schizoid set more interested in flexing range than focus. He’s still got a lithe, lovely vocal instrument and a falsetto that evokes El DeBarge. But Timberlake and Timbaland—they cowrote all but two here—write frustratingly awkward songs. Throughout this clumsy album, Timberlake seeks solace in genres that have been undervalued or, in some cases, outright maligned: early ’80s new wave with wafts of industrial rock (“FutureSex/LoveSound”), quiet storm (“Until the End of Time”), and Minneapolis funk (“Sexy Ladies”). But it never coheres—less a project of creative resuscitation than the ham-fisted fumbling of inexperience. Accordingly, FutureSex’s best moments are its least adventurous, closest to Justin’s comfort zone. Album highlight “My Love” is a bruiser of a club track, deliriously unsubtle, and “What Goes Around” uses the same structure and vocal patterns as his 2002 heartbreak anthem “Cry Me a River.” On the devastating album-closing ballad “(Another Song) All Over Again,” produced by Rick Rubin, Timberlake is utterly at ease, his James Taylor–style vocals cut with a dash of Marvin Gaye angst. Though it’s light soul, it’s anything but slight. And given how eager Justin seems to prove himself capable of complexity, it’s even more of a gem that he can pull off something so small. Do you want VIBE delivered to your home or office? CLICK HERE.

Page printed from:
http://www.vibe.com/music/revolutions/2006/09/justin_future_sex_love_sounds_jive/

Return to previous page