JT's No MJ
FutureSex/LoveSounds by Justin Timberlake
Those of us pop music fans who grew up in the Eighties often wondered what it would sound like if Michael Jackson and Prince, the decade's two reigning musical stars, ever decided to make an album together. While we'll probably never get that chance, FutureSex/LoveSounds, the second album by Mouseketeer-turned-teen star-turned pop/R&B giant Justin Timberlake, gives us a pretty decent approximation. JT's feathery, boyish vocals are at times eerily reminiscent of Off The Wall-era MJ, while main producer Timbaland's slithering funk soundscapes owe quite a debt of gratitude to the Purple One.
The rub, of course, is that Justin is neither Michael nor Prince. While he's certainly a gifted vocalist, he's definitely not a particularly good lyricist. The lyrics on FutureSex struggle to go for the casually horny vibe of Prince's best work, but JT too often sounds like a kid trying on his big brother's clothes. It's adult, yeah, but it's forced, sort of unnatural. It's not that FS/LS is a *bad* album. It's a solid piece of progressive pop, but no better (or worse) than Justified...or either of *Nsync's last two studio albums.
While FutureSex is decent-to-good throughout, there's the occasional moment that makes you wonder whether Timberlake & Timbaland actually have a genius record lurking around somewhere. Until The End of Time pulls off the Prince homage to a tee, with Justin begging like the best of R&B lovemen and a beat that sounds so close to mid-Eighties Prince you might check to see if it's a sample. Meanwhile, My Love is a sonic creation all their own, featuring a surprisingly efficient guest rap from T.I. (whom I normally don't care for), and a beat that sounds like it was constructed in the year 3006. Of course, it's also set the trend for a million other pop/R&B songs in its wake to sound exactly like it.
Other times, I'm not sure what to think. What Goes Around...Comes Around is a fantastic song, but it was a fantastic song when it appeared on Justin's first album, as Cry Me A River. Lovestoned has an appealingly danceable, bare-bones quality to it (as do the album's title track and Sexy Ladies, which both do it a lot better), but it doesn't pick up steam until the song changes form about 2/3 in to guitar-pop a la Coldplay. Losing My Way is a well-meaning message song about drug abuse that falls apart due to some horrendously childish lyrics, and the less we say about The Three 6 Mafia and will.i.am collabos, the better.
Ultimately, this album might have been sunk by Justin's own gargantuan ego. There's not much on this album that hasn't been done before by Michael and Prince (or Rick James, to whom the bass-heavy Sexy Ladies owes a HUGE debt of gratitude). An interview with Timbaland dared to make the comparison between FutureSex and Thriller, and while Justin is certainly a talented guy, he ain't ready to step into Mike's penny loafers yet!
