Justin Timberlake in 2013

lol eric

One of the first reviews:

"Take Back the Night," the disc's handsome but inert lead single, is an exception. And, as on Part 1, some songs go on for too long — including "Amnesia," whose beginning you may well have forgotten by the time you finally get to the end.

But those longueurs are offset by "Drink You Away," a potent electro-blues cut, and by Drake's frisky guest verse in "Cabaret," where the rapper takes the sex talk to a level that Timberlake the boy-band veteran still can't. (Jay Z appears on "2 of 2" as well, musing on Yoko Ono's feminine wiles in "Murder.")

Beyond the muscle-flexing it seems to represent, Timberlake's bluster might be his solution to the problem of Robin Thicke, whose ascent over the summer with the proudly raunchy "Blurred Lines" threatened to make Timberlake look like a genteel (pocket) square.

"I burn it down all the way," he yowls in "Only When I Walk Away," doing his best to start a fire. "Burn it down till there ain't no more."

Drake's frisky guest verse in "Cabaret," where the rapper takes the sex talk to a level that Timberlake the boy-band veteran still can't.

is this a promise or a threat

his bluster will handle the rest!

Take Back The Night and Gimme What I Don't Know are as good as some of the best from Volume 1 IMO. it still has it's moments despite a lot of left-over Timbaland going on.

and I've got a soft spot for the first six minutes of "Not a Bad Thing."

yeah that's a winner.

is "TKO" a legit hit now? sorta seems like it

Why is it the worst Timberlake songs become the hits?

i don't get the sense "TKO" is any more of a hit than the bare minimum any Justin single would be.

the GQ story is pretty entertaining, sounds like they caught him on a bad day: http://www.gq.com/moty/2013/justin-timberlake-men-of-the-year-hashtag

doesn't seem like much of a hit to me, but i guess it is hard to judge when you change the station every time it's on the radio. it's selling more on the level of "take back the night" than "suit and tie" or "mirrors" tho.

The fact that he's touring next summer makes me fearful for how many singles he's going to wring out of the damp rag that is 2 Of 2

well so far he's 0/2 on even making the top 20 with one

maybe that video of him nonchalantly being dragged through the desert at dusk will change everything

that seven minute video

yeah this guy is touring for infinity isn't he

that last vmas where they kissed his ass for 15-30m is looking less like a "still got it!" and more like a "congratulations for having it for so long" esp when off that GQ it sounds like he's more "screw you guys i'm going home" and less "Well i guess i should meet this benny blanco guy about a comeback"

"if you don't wanna hear me whinny over my friend hiccuping for seven minutes then i guess we're done here"

so JT went from Like A Prayer to MDMA in two albums.

daaaamn

I still haven't actually played 2 of 2 lol

Funny how in just one year the conversation turned from "Justin Timberlake needs to return to music" to the last 10 or so posts here

it was just too soon for "yet more futuresex/lovesounds 3 of 1"

he's already said interviews that he gets more out of making people laugh than rocking the crowd so i guess there's nothing driving him to get out of neutral, either to sell out or go crazy musically

in interviews, i mean

I guess the best way to make people laugh is to get pissy with critics?

In retrospect I like Suit and Tie much more than either Get Lucky or Blurred Lines.

In retrospect, I was right about "Take Back the Night," and the rest of you all are crazy.

TBTN is pretty good - it sounds almost like it could be a lesser single from Off The Wall.

It always makes me think of campus Take Back the Night rallies though.

no i still think the general consensus itt re: take back the night was pretty spot-on. i mean at least it's better than tko but...

finally just listened to the second releases

Not A Bad Thing is nice! And the opener, the rest is pretty junky. NO idea why any of those songs are longer than 3 minutes.

I gave "True Blood" more than one or two listens around Halloween.

"Not A Bad Thing" is a decent choice for the next single, sounded good on Fallon the other night. Pretty impossible to rehabilitate the album's rep after the first two singles, though.

Heard "Pusher Love Girl" this morning, still great, only song from these records I care about ever hearing again.

If only it had been released with a continuous mix bonus disc.

still think 20/20 2 was the worst pop album i went about hearing last year

The last time I heard the first album was the weekend I watched Blue Jasmine. Good times.

I think that may be true for me, altho technically I heard it this year. xp

the new single gives off horrific "this is almost destined to be No. 1" vibes

This time 'round I wouldn't mind if it went #1. He's soppier than he pretends and is decent at it.

The recent albums gave off such a bad whiff of stink that despite loving his first two records I've listened to 20/20 all the way through maybe once and the second one never. And it really irks me that the only two JT songs I hear on the radio with any regularity is "What Goes Around ..." and "Mirror." It's almost as if they're afraid to play "Cry Me A River" or "Like I Love You" for fear that people would rather hear them.

"TKO" is without a doubt his worst ever single right? i mean, even worse than the one that literally got turned into a mcdonalds jingle

"not a bad thing" sounded good on fallon

"I'm Lovin' It" was great idc idc

"Mirrors" might not be his worst single, but it's his worst HIT single, at any rate.

love "not a bad thing" on the radio, song has a total summer jam feel

Otm

Oh yeah -- his best single since 2008

The single version, of course: the album version is a monstrosity.

mehhhhhhhh

I feel like the most damning thing about Part 2 is that none of the singles have been as good as "Suit & Tie" or "Mirrors"