But, as its title implies, much of Man of the Woods also comes with the moonshine-and-mason-jar glisten of country, blues and folk. Shortly after Timberlake began dating actress Biel in 2007, that band of indie beardos broke out, and it’s hard not to hear Timberlake similarly seeing love with the same calm, paternal, somewhat retrograde tone of the Fleet Foxes, who once sang “Your protector’s coming home, coming home.”. This is forbidden by our terms of service. Timbaland and Danja conjure a testosterone electronic chainsaw grind and match it with vintage Larry Graham-style slap bass: The fact that the two musical elements don’t exactly match groovewise creates a beautiful and disorienting tension unlike anything on the radio. The whining steel guitar and cavernous 808s of the minimalist title track offer a country-rap whisper somewhere between Sturgill Simpson and Ying Yang Twinz. When you can’t say anything nice, you might do well to sing Timberlake and Stapleton’s complacent mantra: “Sometimes the greatest way to say something/Is to say nothing at all.“ Subtlety is lacking here: The last time they sing this phrase, they cut off, suddenly, on the word “nothing.” When Stapleton sings about “harmony,” the instruments drop out to emphasize, yep, voices in harmony. It’s a reminder that one of Timberlake’s best contributions to pop is his brand of power ballad: propulsive and gospel-infused. “Livin’ Off the Land,” which starts by sampling a commercial for the History Channel wilderness survival show Mountain Men, mixes stuttering beats with strummed guitars for a working man’s lament about paying off credit card debt to save your relationship. He has a terrific voice and throughout his career, he’s proven himself to be a compelling artist. Other parts of the set take in Timberlake’s previous generational shift: the funk revue of The 20/20 Experience, essayed by his tight, cacophonous band the Tennessee Kids. But when he gives himself to jookin, tracing golden ratios with his feet, he’s mesmerising, and there’s a nod to contemporary styles with a burst of rapper BlocBoy JB’s hopping “shoot” moves. Read and write album reviews for Say Something - Justin Timberlake on AllMusic If so, you'll need to disable it when using this site, as it spams the websites you visit with fake requests. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music. In addition to a successful fusion of country and urban-pop, vocally, both Timberlake and Stapleton deliver compelling performances. See Justin Timberlake, Chris Stapleton's Video for New Song 'Say Something' Justin Timberlake Talks Super Bowl, 'Personal' New LP Inspired by Wife, Son Related Reviews But for all its flaws, it’s hard not to be impressed by Man of the Woods. Genres: Folk Pop, Country Pop. It’s hard to call opening track “Filthy” “pop” since the production is so avant-garde. In the sad wake of the dated and yelpy “Filthy” (more like PastSex/AnimalNoises!) In the world of mainstream pop, Justin Timberlake cuts a curiously restless figure. A soulful duet with Alicia Keys that recalls fellow Memphis soul man Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” is nice but inconsequential. Rather than attempting a full country crossover, Timbaland adds percussive flourishes with some guitar work, aiming for “Jolene” but landing closer to Tonic. Subscribe He was like No sooner had he established himself as something more substantial than a former boyband pin-up than he started making noticeably more adventurous records than was strictly necessary. To Timberlake, “rustic” means “survivalist,” as opposed to “downhome,” and he sounds like he has the warmest, coziest doomsday bunker on the prairie. The shadow of Prince, Kraftwerk and David Bowie’s album Diamond Dogs hung over at least some of 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, while 2013’s The 20/20 Experience offered the sound of visionary hip hop and R&B producer Timbaland at his most exploratory and audacious. You might have the Hola VPN extension installed. Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton first collaborated at the 2015 Country Music Association Awards, performing "Tennessee Whiskey" and "Drink You Away". Pop lifespans be damned – the boy is still determined to dance, dance, dance. Stapleton was initially only writing songs with Timberlake for the album, before being asked to sing on "Say Something". Justin Timberlake review – pop's constant dancer grows old gracefully O2 Arena, London Some scoffed at his Man of the Woods project, but its country-soul proves a … Available for everyone, funded by readers. This is obviously ambitious, but it’s not entirely without precedent: in the late 60s and early 70s, the lines between R&B and country were frequently blurred.

“Midnight Summer Jam” is like an update of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Shining Star” where the hooks are more wine-splashed than sugar-coated. That said, in advance of his fifth studio album, Man of the Woods, it’s been difficult to figure out what to expect from the project two singles in. Melding the two is a tough call, and the finished product is of decidedly mixed quality. It’s the conundrum facing Justin Timberlake, 37, whose time in boyband N*Sync was followed by a hugely successful and credible solo career that has faltered a little of late with 2013’s bloated The 20/20 Experience and new album Man of the Woods, lampooned by critics for his anti-metropolitan switch from suits to plaid. There's not much we can do about this right now; you'll have to turn off your VPN in order to continue using the site. At the other, there’s stuff that sounds awkward – Sauce’s ungainly lurches from funk-rock to Nashville and back again – or flatly awful: you can see what they’ve tried to do on Wave – stick a perky walking-bassline country song over a half-speed R&B slow jam beat – but the overall effect is just horrible, while Flannel deals in one of country’s least appealing aspects, schmaltz.

The good bits are great, the bad bits best avoided, but in a pop world where originality isn’t much encouraged, there’s something really laudable about the intention behind it, and its author’s willingness to think outside the box. Justin Timberlake: Man of the Woods review – from plain bad to bewitching ... Justin Timberlake cuts a curiously restless figure. The Hard Stuff offers a bewitching haze of acoustic guitar, pedal steel and electronics. But, apparently, the two have nothing to say, and they’re absurdly proud of it. Released 25 January 2018 on RCA. This company sells your internet traffic to other people, meaning that other people can use your IP address and can break some of the above rules, causing you to be banned from this site. (Required), You can request being unbanned by clicking. The ‘talk-worthy’ list “Small Talk + More Songs Worth Talking About” features songs by Doja Cat, Halsey, James Blake, Khalid & Niall Horan. If “Filthy,” like Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Illusion,” was Timberlake’s poppy pre-Super Bowl misfire, then “Say Something” should be his “Million Reasons”—except he doesn’t give you one good reason to stay here. Age has perhaps withered Like I Love You a little, Timberlake now unable to give it its malevolent erotic urgency. This makes “Say Something” the best single of Man of the Woods to date. Powered by the set’s strongest hooks, the band’s maximalism suddenly delivers as they segue into Cry Me a River and Mirrors for a dizzyingly uplifting climax. © Copyright 2020 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. (The former may have forgotten that he already had a 2009 song with the same title.) The shadow of Prince, Kraftwerk and David Bowie’s album Diamond Dogs hung over at least some of 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, while 2013’s The 20/20 Experience offered the sound of visionary hip hop and R&B producer, Timbaland at his most exploratory and audacious. Sure, your voice might endure, but your body won’t keep dancing like that, and your fans will only ever span a single generation; like an iPhone or David Davis, obsolescence is built in. Some tracks don’t recall country, southern rock or R&B so much as the surfer-friendly, reggae-tinged acoustic pop of Jack Johnson, which is a pretty peculiar end result, given the intention. After all, “Say Something” reunited Timberlake with the Nashville country singer Chris Stapleton, who performed a show-stopping duet with Justin at the 2015 Country Music Awards. Watch ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Moderate Presidential Debate in ‘We’re All Doomed’ Video, Mac Davis, Country Singer and Elvis Presley Songwriter, Dead at 78, In Defending Hunter, Biden Showed Us His Potential, Miley Cyrus Releases Raucous Live Cover of ‘Heart of Glass’, There’s No Way In Hell Trump Doesn’t Know Who the Proud Boys Are, Springfield of Dreams: 150 Best ‘Simpsons’ Episodes, Mötley Crüe on Summer Tour With Def Leppard, Poison: ‘We Missed Being in a Band Together’, Gang Starr’s First Album in 16 Years is a Gift to Old-School Rap Fans.

You might be using a VPN. The single Supplies is utterly thrilling: spectral, vaguely psychedelic mandolin, Pharrell Williams growling and barking words, and lyrics which, improbably, use backwoods survivalism as a metaphor for sex. Our take on the pop icon’s funky, often weird new LP, which includes some of his most exploratory, genre-defiant music in more than a decade, Justin Timberlake's fifth album is 'Man of the Woods.'. That was one of those things where there wasn't necessarily a plan.

Want more Rolling Stone? But if Timberlake is to be believed, silence is golden. He’s melded the country and western and southern rock of his native Tennessee with latter-day R&B – and it’s hard not to be impressed, Last modified on Tue 10 Jul 2018 11.44 BST. O2 Arena, London Some scoffed at his Man of the Woods project, but its country-soul proves a classy way for the Tennessee boy to enter the next phase of his pop career, Tue 10 Jul 2018 12.39 BST Step 2 (optional): Enter any other comments/feedback here, Step 3: Enter your email address. The title track, rather corny on record, becomes endearingly light-hearted – you could imagine Candi Staton doing a good cover – and the magnificently robust single Say Something will endure long into any future world tours. This is the setting for Timberlake and Stapleton to trade verses about how they’re being expected to comment on stuff—what stuff exactly isn’t totally clear—but they don’t wanna “get caught up in the rhythm.” (Oh, guys, didn’t you hear Katy Perry? The appearance of Chris Stapleton itself confirms the country influence. Here, Timberlake freely switches between the autobahn and the dirt road, and it’s hard to follow him down every detour. Still, parts of Man of the Woods are his most exploratory music in years, whether it’s the skippy, juddering avant-funk or making meaningful modern countrypolitan without sounding like a disco ball in a Solo cup. Cue songs with names such as Livin’ Off the Land, guest appearances from the Nashville star Chris Stapleton, a songwriting credit for Toby Keith and so much lyrical boosting of Timberlake’s southern roots that it’s hard not to feel he may be laying it on a bit thick. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. It’s not perfect, but you can’t raise a barn without getting your hands dirty. I Got All My Debate News from Facebook. n the world of mainstream pop, Justin Timberlake cuts a curiously restless figure. Justin Timberlake, who goes back to his southern roots on his latest album, his first in five years. Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 12.45 GMT. “Say Something” comes truest to the characterization that Justin Timberlake provided in regards to Man of the Woods. At one extreme, there’s some fantastic music here. Instead, JT the co-producer seems more than happy to playing giddy cheerleader and hypeman to these wild beats – adding lines like “Act like the South ain’t the shit!” and “Go ahead, say I won’t!” and “I don’t like it, I love it!” – with his voice pushed a little to the background with no giant hooks to speak of.

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