Justin Timberlake in 2013

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

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

― some dude, Sunday, March 24, 2013 10:19 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's not just the melody - I like the sound of the record a lot, too. I like the synth (plus sounds like on overdriven guitar) intro, I like some of the harmonies, I like his singing on it. Love the would-be coda with the (fake?) strings at around the five minute mark.

btw the other '80s song I was thinking of that has that same "whoa-oa" is "Allentown."

Yeah but even as a sarcastic comment it doesn't really make sense unless you were misreading my jay comment in some weird way (xp)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r0n9Dv6XnY

All the "whoa-oa"'s of the 80's handily combined in one song.

all the whoa-oas ever recorded

xxpost sarc of sd

xpost

That would be this one:

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

i still hate "halo", what a cloying, simplistic melody

that it's beyonce canon is unforgivable

Thanks, guys. All I'm gonna do is listen to remixes of "Tarzan Boy" for the rest of the afternoon.

you know how to party

gimme the order!

i still hate "halo", what a cloying, simplistic melody

at least, unlike half of 20/20, it has a melody at all

ridiculous

Yeah but even as a sarcastic comment it doesn't really make sense unless you were misreading my jay comment in some weird way (xp)

― some dude, Sunday, March 24, 2013 2:14 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, I was just pointing out the nexus of old hov/j. cole/skylar grey/alex da kid which by all rights should have resulted in a shit sandwich.

i still hate "halo", what a cloying, simplistic melody

that it's beyonce canon is unforgivable

― A$AP Rovi (J0rdan S.), Sunday, March 24, 2013 2:34 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

word

halo is bearable by dint of beyonce's performance but otherwise yeah it's garbage

I don't even like her performance. It sounds like she's swallowing the low notes.

i actually have a lot of respect for beyonce after sasha fierce - diving headlong into adult contemporary like that wasn't the obvious pandering no-brainer it's being painted out to be here, and personally i resisted it til she waterboarded me into it. furthermore, a huge part of that is down to how great and almost maniacally theatrical a performer she is throughout the album: granted i might not be the one pressing play on it but in 10 years i guarantee i'll be enjoying "remember those walls i built well baby theyre tumbling ~ DOWWWNN ~" way more than i will be reminiscing about a promo ad campaign that preceded some rub pseudo-edgy dubstep cobblers.

― r|t|c, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:54 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ post that has always summed up the appeal of "Halo" for me

at least, unlike half of 20/20, it has a melody at all

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Sunday, March 24, 2013 6:36 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

this is a pretty dumb criticism. giving a piece of music credit for having something even if that something sucks is pretty damn limiting.

Sasha Fierce is the one Bey album I just plain never wana return to

Srsly Lex every time you criticise these songs for lacking melody or structure you're just showing yourself up as not really having listened to them.

yeah. the album is not a masterpiece, perfect or anything and liking it or not depends on one's taste but saying there are no melodies, compositional ideas or work on the sounds and textures seems pretty wrong to me...
it's not an album with 3min pop hits. so what ?
there are other ways to approach music...

regarding Lex and the lack of melodies and structures, he had the same statement about the Grimes album, if I remember well. Which seemed crazy to me at the time, for the opposite reason, since that album was filled with hooks and short pop hits !

I've not heard this yet, but I revisited FS/LS over the weekend, and "Timberlake and Timbaland do digital <i>Voodoo</i> for 2013" sounds pretty good, to me.