Renowned pop artist Justin Timberlake makes his triumphant return to music with the release of his third album, “The 20/20 Experience”. This album comes seven years after the release of his last album, “Future Sex/ Love Sounds”. During his hiatus, Timberlake focused mainly on his acting. He appeared in several films, such as “Friends with Benefits”, “Bad Teacher”, and the critically acclaimed “The Social Network”. During this time his acting skills grew significantly. With his return to music, he proves he has also evolved as a musician.
From the opening seconds of the album, you can sense the evolution by Timberlake. The first song, “Pusher Love Girl”, features full instrumentation by his band The Tennessee Kids. Throughout the song, Timberlake relates his love of a woman to a drug-like high. The guitar heavy melody also features short interjections of violins, and soothing background vocals that help carry the song as a whole. From there, we go into the first single released from the album, “Suit & Tie”. The upbeat tune features everything from subtle guitar riffs to a well-timed horn section. The song also features a verse from legendary rapper Jay-Z, the only featured voice on the entire album.
After the song “Don’t Hold the Wall”, the tempo of the album slows down considerably. The songs “Strawberry Bubble Gum”, “Tunnel Vision”, “Spaceship Coupe”, and “That Girl” are great ballads that each carries the same theme. Each song centers on this concept of true love and goes into great detail of what that love really means. The next song, “Let the Groove Get In”, is a much more upbeat song that resembles Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Starting Something”. The hypnotic beat perfectly incorporates the rhythms of samba music and showcases even more evolution by Timberlake. The lack of lyrics does not hurt the song in any way. Instead, it causes you to focus your attention on the variety of sounds that carry the song altogether.
But the highlight of the entire album lies in the song “Mirrors”. The eight minute song features the most complex sounds of the album. In the final three minutes, Timberlake is able to take the entire beat and completely flip it into something new. It is a technique that he mastered on his last album and a main point of each song on the album.
Overall, Timberlake is able to successfully integrate himself back into the musical forefront with “The 20/20 Experience”. The 10 songs he offers each blend into a beautiful flow that brings the full use of live instruments back into the genres of pop and R&B.
