After a six year hiatus, singer Justin Timberlake and producer Timbaland jumped back into the music studio in 2012 and created two chart topping albums. Together, they were compiled into The 20/20 Experience – The Complete Experience.
On Sept. 27, The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 was released for the public to hear. Both part one and part two peaked at number one in the US, however part one sold significantly less copies than part one. In my opinion, The 20/20 Experience should have been the only album released by Timberlake. There were just a few songs that became my favorite: “Take Back the Night,” which was the album’s first single, “Only When I Walk Away,” and “You Got It On.”
Rappers Drake and Jay-Z are featured on the album, but their verses aren’t worthy of positive attention.
I bet Jay-Z and Timberlake decided to make songs together, resulting in “Murder” and Jay-Z’s single “Holy Grail.” Timberlake made the latter much better than it would have been if Jay-Z was by himself. “Murder” was sort of a hack-‘n-slash song, though.
The best part of Drake’s rap in “Cabaret” was when it ended. When he first popped up into the music scene, I was excited because “Wheelchair Jimmy” became a rapper. Now I don’t like him because he thinks he’s so hardcore; it seems artificial considering he was on a Canadian TV show before his emergence into rapping.
A technique I last saw in Timberlake’s previous album FutureSex/LoveSounds was carried over onto the compilation. The majority of the songs are divided into two parts: the main song and its postlude. I actually thought a lot of the postludes were better constructed than the actual songs.
What I wished the producer had done again was make each postlude blend into the next song. Instead of making the entire album seem like a very long (but good), one hour song, it seemed like a bunch of chopped up songs that were painfully long.
I’m hoping after the tour for his compilation ends in 2014, Timberlake will jump back into the studio instead of grabbing scripts for movies. While I love his acting, I missed his music dearly.
You can catch JT live at the Amway Center on Dec. 19.
6/10
Only three out of the nine songs wowed me, the rest was just kind of fluff.