Justin Timberlake in 2013

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."

one time I heard my dad whistling that song

I feel like "What Goes Around" sounds like "Cry Me a River" and "Mirrors" sounds like WGA, but "Mirrors" does not sound like CMAR, if that makes sense.

yeah i understand that

i just wish JT used "Gone" as a ballad template instead

i liked dead and gone
confused that more people aren't talking about timbo? I care less about this as a JT album and more about it as the first music i've heard from timbaland in a long time that i liked. haven't ever really thought of Timberlake as a creative force regardless but Timbaland there was a time

I don't hate "Blue Ocean Floor", but it feels like it's missing something.

i quite like "dead and gone", it's like "coming home" (though inferior obv) in that it's super-corny and indefensible on one level but it totally WORKS

eh those songs kinda epitomize the beginning of this era of the pop rap power ballad, lotta baggage for me

yeah that's def one level it's indefensible on, see also "halo", which is another that WORKS for me in a major way despite itself

ambushed by completely expected emotion, as tom ewing once put it

OneRepublic's "Apologize" seemed to be Timbo's first attempt at doing a plodding pop ballad without JT, and then Ryan Tedder wrote "Halo" and a lot of other songs like that, so it all feels pretty connected to me

still think tedder is the antichrist

most of Timbo's changes to "Apologize" were cosmetic enough to place his mercenary intentions in the most obvious light. Around here after "Apologize" took off (I first thought it was a new Enrique ballad lol) radio played OneRepublic's version from that point on.

i have never heard any version of "Apologize" without the Timbaland production on it, one exists?

hmm yeah they're so similar i never realized there was a difference -- the Tedder one even has the vaguely Timbo-ish kick drum pattern, Tim just seems to have added hi-hats and his walrus hoot backup vox

dying @ "walrus hoot"

"Halo" is a song I have never been able to stand even slightly. I did fux with "Apologize" (in either version) until it became unbearably overplayed tho.

"Coming Home" is brilliant, but that's a case of great songwriting overcoming the form.

when I was still confused about its authorship I thought, "Hmm -- wow. Why doesn't Enrique sing like this more often?"

it's hilarious how "Coming Home" has the most ilx-beloved verses penned by Jay-Z in the last few years

damn, "Apologize" was apparently the biggest radio airplay hit in the history of the Pop Songs radio in North America, with 10,394 plays in one week, until its record was broken by Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love", which was also co-written by Tedder

it's hilarious how "Coming Home" has the most ilx-beloved verses penned by Jay-Z in the last few years

― some dude, Sunday, March 24, 2013 12:44 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and co-written by J. Cole!

"Apologize" was inescapable November 2007 through most of 2008 iirc

haha

When speaking to Kid about what he wanted, Diddy said, "I want a beat that makes me feel like a white man in a basement in Atlanta".[5]

lmao

if i ever change my username im changing it to 'a white man in a basement in atlanta'

oh yes, can't forget how much ILX loves Alex da Kid and Skylar Grey

huh?

/sarc