Justin Timberlake in 2013

midtempo power ballads are really the new threat to everything

I want to agree that Bruno Mars proved that middling New Wave "homages" are a threat. Be afraid of Trey Songz trying his own "New World Man."

that=but

Live performance just emphasizes how over the top that thing is imo.

Not sure what the trend I'm describing has to do with new wave. If anything, "Locked Out of Heaven" is the one big Bruno Mars hit that circumvents that issue. And MMTS has already fell victim to the power ballad trend. This is has been on the radio here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foZLo_sSnkk

It just feels like this is replacing EDM-pop as the standard default-to.

ha I was just making a crack. Thin-voiced crooners doing New Wave would force me to swim out to sea in the hopes of being attacked by sharks.

after about ten listens, i've boiled this down to Pusher Love Girl/Tunnel Vision/Let the Groove Get In
and 2 minutes apiece of Don't Hold the Wall/That Girl + the coda on Strawberry Bubblegum
that's a solid 30 minute EP and enough for me to rep for this IMO

i think the songs i like all are based around casiotone presets!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfKwtsx9RYo

Thin-voiced crooners

Like Smokey Robinson or Al Green?

yes exactly like Smokey and Al Green.

i don't know why anyone would attribute "Mirrors" to the influence/competition of Bruno Mars when it sounds EXACTLY like hits from Justin's previous albums

idk it fits very neatly into this post-adele karaoke reality tv moment whereby the mid-tempo power ballad is the perfect form for belting it out while packing in sentimentality, all retro'd up

it's not really a power ballad? shipz otm i don't feel like it has anything to do with "this moment" at all

yeah i mean i listen to Bruno's "When I Was Your Man" and Rihanna's "Stay" and i think the label DEFINITELY had visions of "Someone Like You" when they released them as singles. i don't think "Mirrors" or much of anything on this album couldn't have been written 5 years ago.

that's kind of my theory about long-gestating albums -- usually when someone takes 5+ years to follow-up a record, the result isn't really any more of an aesthetic leap from the previous record than if they'd just cranked it out in 2 years

mirrors doesn't remind me of old JT in any way but i may just have mentally skipped over anything that sounded like that at the time? got a comparison track there?

The way the chorus starts - that's classic power ballad sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTJmXrgsFg

mirrors sounds absolutely nothing like any of Justin's old hits and I am actually confused as to how anyone even hears that

it doesn't resemble "What Goes Around" or "Cry Me A River" to you guys at all?

I think you are being sarcastic maybe? It does not sound even a little like either of those songs to me.

not being sarcastic at all!

Huh. Ok then, we are hearing it different then.

"then"

i'm with ship

all three move like they're on rails, inexorably towards a conclusion

"Mirrors" is on a cattle car burdened with cow manure though.

the production to me is very 00's boy band stylee, while the song itself is p blah and not as well written or dynamic as that kind of stuff usually was

The vocal arrangements and melodic progression also scream "boy band".

Still a boring, unadventurous vanilla cookie as the NY Times pegged him last Sunday

i also always think of the og "cry" where ethan says the song is too much like "are you that somebody" which i don't really agree with but it does bring to mind how often timbo is just rearranging the same rhythmic and melodic elements in slightly different forms over and over: justin - cry me a river

I could argue he's doing what Jam-Lewis were up to in 90 or '91 but Jam-Lewis were aesthetically in better shape.

your mom was in better shape

when my dick lifted her.

what the

lololol

hahaha wait... how does "mirrors" not sound EXACTLY like "what comes around goes around"

i mean i love "mirrors" but it's intentionally overt

I don't know about exactly. Tempos are about the same, but "Mirrors" is in a major key in the intro and the chorus and the nature of the chorus is very different in both songs.

it's a blatantly obvious callback. this is an absurd conversation.

I'm not saying it isn't a callback, but it's not the same song at all.

nobody is saying it's the same song or same melody. the resemblance can still be striking despite clear differences.

thanks to this thread I listened to "Mirrors" again. the new york unemployment office would probably classify that as work.

anyway it still sounds far more like "Halo" than it does "What Goes Around." the verses are a little similar but I think maybe Justin just has very limited melodic shapes to work with. around the second (long) iteration of the chorus this basically falls apart.

fairly obvious elements of "What Goes Around" you'd think would be referenced if this were a callback: the riff at the beginning, the strings that go with the riff, the entire second half (no, the staccato "you are the love of my life" bit doesn't count, you have to stretch to hear it as a deliberate callback rather than "hey syncopation is cool let's try that again"), the entire storyline at all (if I were Justin Timberlake and writing a callback to "What Goes Around" I'd at least put a "came right back around" line in there somewhere; after all, if Britney can manage that so would I dammit.)

the hilarious thing is if there's a callback to anything here it's to Dead and Gone. OF ALL THINGS. it's based on as much evidence I mean

i don't think "callback" is accurate -- it's more of an unconscious 'when we write a melodic midtempo ballad it always comes out sounding like this' thing

i would file "Dead And Gone" and "Rehab" and several other JT collaborations under this type of song

yeah "callback" i guess wasn't exactly accurate, but "what comes around" and "mirrors" are quite obviously from the same branch of tim/jt songs and considering that they're both solo jt singles i think the connection is unavoidable

Re. melodic shapes: I love the chorus of "Mirrors" not just because of its expansiveness but because of the melodic contour through the whole thing. Great balance of repetitions and variation.

sometimes you get so close to becoming the Geir who actually knows something about music theory

everyone itt raggin' on "Blue Slide Park," i think it's a pretty good album closer

I might be the only person who liked "Dead and Gone."