Justin Timberlake

I personally fall into the second camp... in the past I've found it easy to admire Pharrell/Timbaland... but not so easy to love them. And I suspect, for me, it all comes down to the various ineffables of "personality", our relationship with the star. I can't help it - I love the guy, very blatantly wearing a 'Thriller' era MJ trilby, sneaky-peteing thru Britney's house, rocking the playboy mansion with Nelly...

The Face had an editorial on this in this ish with JT on the cover - heralding him as a return to the idea of the "proper 80s popstar", an advance on the production-line poppets of the late 90s... hmmm.

True, but isn't Justin being marketed as an R&B "performer" as well as a pop star? That seems to be how he wants to posit himself in interviews.

Keep telling yourself that. ;-)

While I would also say most of those singers were overrated (and that the songwriters should have most of the honour), the singers at Motown and Stax were still considerably better vocalists than Justin Timberlake.

ME TO THREAD.

Justin doesn't have a good voice. I loathe his voice. He sucks so much ass he has a tattoo on the back of his neck that says "Booty Hoover". "Dance With Me" is the ONLY song from his album that I've heard where I haven't wanted to punch him, largely because it's the only song I've heard where he phonates and gets out of his reedy, nasal, can't-really-hit-the-notes shtick. He sound is unsupported, weak, overly buzzy and intrusive. He took what should have been a fantastic song ("Cry Me A River") and vocally defecated all over it, defiling it like he was a deranged coprophiliac hopped up on laxatives let loose in the Louvre.

HE IS AN ABOMINATION AND HE MUST BE STOPPED.

(He is a good dancer, though.)

(PS: "He sound" = "His sound")

Can I echo this and in fact replace the goddamn Hollywood sign with this statement? And if you're asking me to not care about his music but his personality and public image or to say that's why he matters, DIE. I am about as fascinated by that as I am by Eminem's, ie not one fucking iota.

The NERD album is t'riffic.

That's the part of the song that really does it for me too. Seals the deal. The way he's saying "The damage is done, so I'll guess I'll be leaving" is in such a fashion where you don't really feel he's planning on heading out at all--or in a way in which the damage being spoken of isn't damage on himself at this point in the song. It's a fantastic song, and the video is so spectacularly creepy that I'm not even sure what to say about it. Justin: So Crazy I'll Probably End Up Dating Him!

Dan is right, Justin has a horrendous voice. It's a huge reason why I don't like a lot of the rest of his songs. I'd prefer them if someone else (not fucking Usher thank you!) sang a lot of the ones I don't like, because it's his screeching falsetto that turns me off them.

Tim is saying it in that sarcastic 'oh well' vein, as if he/Justin planned it all along and gets a kick out of the fact someone else may be hurt. it doesnt come off as disturbing as it should be because Tim has such a wily grin about him and he knows he's getting away with it...its just a nice in-character method

If anything I think the album sounds a lot closer to Off the Wall era Michael.

I do like the Neptunes hook on Like I Love You, mind.

The "damage is done" bit rules because that's where they break the beat down; see also the end of "Take Me Now"

I don't really think that's how it comes across within the song's constructs at all. The entire song comes off extrodinarily bitter--actually, if you notice, the second part of the chorus is sung in an incredibly high falsetto, very feminine, as if he's imitating his ex-girlfriend's voice*. Tim does come across grinning, but not in a wily or scampish way at all. Justin sounds on the verge of losing it and the pitch in his voice gets increasingly nervous and "mocking" as the song goes on, and the crashing together of the musical elements right after Tim's spoken bit just heighten this weird sense of him doing something really horrible to the girl, if even "just" psychologically horrible.

Actually < /Geir>, if I was to pick a song in a strangely "similar" vein, ie sounds dangerously stalkerish, Enrique Iglesias's "Escape" sounds wily and scampish, despite having ridiculously disturbing lyrics! Comparing the two songs, Enrique comes off all Pepe LePew and loveable despite actively hunting down this girl who doesn't want him anymore and telling her she can't leave him, while Justin sounds like he's about thisclose to stabbing Britney to death.

* Yeah, I know he sings like this all the goddamned time for no reason besides "Hey! Do you remember Michael Jackson?" but in the context of me liking this song, I choose to ignore that irrefutable fact so we're going to need to all ignore it for sake of my post. Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.

(haha Ally's footnote rules the universe!)

No, we're merely straightforward about what we will and will not have in the house (this is why we're right about My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult).

But you know, he ain't that bad people!

I'm happy you're happy.

"Cry Me a River" as a sign of JT's psychological torment -- more like the random high school post-bust-up victim who just needs to drink some lime vodka and throw up behind the bleachers one night when the football team is losing badly and it's raining so that next week he can go to class and see her there and maybe carve something into the desktop with the pointy part of a compass but that'll be about it.

As for the Usher conundrum, he immediately scores points with me for NOT being JT, so really it all improves from there.

;o)

Hey, that experience wasn't mine. Wisely, I just didn't date anyone in high school at all. ;-)

as has been pointed out repeatedly already this has only happened because of britney with jackson finally being
acknowledged as the "oh yeah and that too" part of a 2 for the price of 1 apology which is so fucked up the best PR in the world couldn't make it sound ok

fuck this piece of shit slimeball

In January my students at the college paper edited a video explaining the incident. When this clip finally came, recorded a few days before our forum, the audience hissed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswT01nKLLA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je0roKRn3nY

disappointed he's going for bland/competent/tasteful instead of last album's bizarre trainwrecks

He's in good voice.

That glimmer in his eyes suggests he's always stoned to the gills.

Maroon 5 thinks this is boring

this feels like it was written 5 years ago

Sounds very written for the end credits of a romantic comedy.

This album is in bad need of editing, there are some moments (Technicolor, Drown especially, Flame) but this is not quite the satisfying continuation of 20/20 (lush, hooks, outros) I was hoping for.

I totally forgot this was coming

I a similar response, Nabozo. In some places he's singing better than ever but writing as if he were a 22-year-old frat bro, which I expect.

Okay, firing this up

Is … “Memphis” Justin trying to be Drake?

You managed to completely shut down any nascent interest I might have had in this album with one post

I'm endeared by how none of his albums are shorter than 63 minutes, with the new one the longest yet (!) But it can hardly help him can it? I thought Man of the Woods was a flop but a UK #5 debut for this actually seems pretty abysmal for someone like JT. Apparently ticket sales are doing awfully too. An unimperial phase? - his critical and commercial stocks have been sinking for years.

Can't bring myself to listen to this. Spending like 80 minutes with him in 2024 seems insane lol

yes i think the album is underperforming basically everywhere

i too really have no desire to listen to a long album from him (or a long track lol, as was his habit for quite some time). "selfish" is kind of a cute single tbh, but it was very telling that he went directly to the (attempt at a) "mirrors"/"not a bad thing" unchallenging radio candy sorta song instead of initially coming out with something that might plausibly be called left-field like he has more often than not attempted (tho whether he succeeded is open to debate obv)

Cry me a river.

https://www.stereogum.com/2190413/paul-mccartney-best-solo-songs/lists/10-best-songs/

Um, this: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/justin-timberlake-arrested-long-island-faces-dwi-charge-officials-say-rcna157692

Paul McCartney Covers The Great Timberlake Songs

am i to understand this man was a pop star of some sort?

"your driver's license? GONE"

"but I have a show tonight!"

"cry me a river"

'oh, so you do know me?"

"??? no. what I do know is you're going to jail, this i promise you"

"oh come on"

"you know, maybe god should have spent a little more time on you"

Downey/Gibson/Grant-level mugshot.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/22/opinion/justin-timberlake-arrest.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2U0.Y1y0.Z_tWofvWIHWa&smid=url-share

That Justin Timberlake — the one who has emerged over the last few years — looked less like a pop Prince Charming, more a serial exploiter of women and of Black music and culture, a man who has enjoyed unearned privilege and undeserved successes, who has been served that long-awaited slice of humble pie. Which is why plenty of people were so eager to view his arrest this week as a kind of deferred-karma comeuppance. I was, I confess, one of those people. Some part of me wants to believe that if the ultimate Teflon-coated rich white dude is no longer so able to charm his way out of trouble, a larger cultural sea change might be underway.But it’s the same part of me that wanted to believe that Donald Trump would be held to account for the “Access Hollywood” tape. Except he wasn’t.... Canceled white guys rarely stay canceled. It seems that the best we can hope for is a chance to briefly hold them responsible for their actions. Meanwhile, the cultural tides that prompted people to reconsider Mr. Timberlake’s actions are shifting back — if they ever really shifted at all.

“Serial exploiter of…black music and culture”

Do people think that because he works with The Neptunes and Timbaland for most of his albums? Or is there something more? I don’t always keep up with Justin Timberlake discourse

there are particular things that usually get pointed to with timberlake's relation to blackness, the janet jackson superbowl incident being the main one

I mean, much of Timberlake’s stage schtick is outright stolen from Michael Jackson. It’s almost Corey Feldman-level embarrassing at times.

Todd in the Shadows is too generous in his assessment of his acting skills. He’s decent in Woody Allen’s underrated Wonder Wheel, but drags down every other film he appears in

he's like an amazing singer, dancer and musician. very dumb to call his success "undeserved." his talent is pretty undeniable even if you don't like the guy personally.

I would like to point out I have been OTM throughout this thread etc.

randomly i picked up 'man of the woods' today on cd as part of a "3 for £1" deal.
i.e. sweet f.a.
one day i will listen to it.