Justin Timberlake‘s sixth album begins with hints of an existential crisis. “I mean, what’s better than having everything that you dreamed of? / Long as they need you, you don’t need love,” he croons over woozy, The Weeknd-esque beats. Named after the Tennessee city where he was born and raised, melancholy bop ‘Memphis’ chronicles the immense pressure he felt to succeed – “just be great – put on for your city, for your state” – and the inevitable collateral damage. “Who cares if there’s too much on your plate? Don’t make no mistakes and hide your pain,” he sings in a suitably disassociated tone.
‘Memphis’ is Timberlake at his most reflective, but it’s a misleading opening song. ‘Everything I Thought It Was’, the singer’s first album since 2018’s ‘Man Of The Woods’, on which he incorporated a smattering of country and Americana into his slinky nu-disco sound, generally cleaves to his musical comfort zone. ‘Liar’ is an effective foray into Afrobeats territory with a verse from Nigerian star Fireboy DML and ‘Sanctified’ offers an audacious conflation of rock and gospel. But most of this album gives us vintage – or at least typical – JT, which means shameless sex jams and funky club bangers.
‘Fuckin’ Up The Disco’, one of three tracks co-produced by Calvin Harris, offers a glossy modern update of Michael Jackson‘s ‘Off The Wall’ sound. ‘Play’ sounds a bit like Prince riffing on David Bowie‘s ‘Fame’, only with lyrics about sipping “that bougie rosé“– presumably Echo Falls doesn’t make the grade chez Timberlake. ‘No Angels’, another club strut co-produced by Harris, proves Timberlake hasn’t lost his penchant for cheesy chat-up lines. “‘Cause you’re lookin’ like gas and I’m lookin’ for mileage,” he purrs, perhaps cosplaying as a horny petrol station attendant.
‘Infinity Sex’, one of several tracks co-produced by Timbaland, a mainstay on every Timberlake album since his 2002 solo debut ‘Justified’, features equally questionable come-ons. “Soon as all your clothes hit the floor, pray this hotel room is insured,” he sings in a sultry staccato before delivering a less than reassuring platitude: “The future is a mess, but your present is the best.” Let’s hope his lover wasn’t sharing her crippling climate change anxiety as they checked into the room.
Cringe lyrics aren’t the only familiar part of the package. ‘Technicolor’, one of several tracks co-produced by Timberlake’s longtime collaborator Timbaland, is a two-part epic that begins as a sultry R&B ballad before morphing into a percolating midtempo. It’s accomplished but less striking than the song suites Timberlake and Timbaland constructed on 2006’s ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’, the singer’s excellent second album that remains his career’s best. ‘Flame’, an emotional slowie about a dying relationship, feels like an attempt to recreate the sophisti-pop grandeur of ‘What Goes Around… Comes Around’, a standout ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’ single.
It doesn’t help that most of these songs and the album as a whole are slightly too long. Clocking in at a slither under 77 minutes, ‘Everything I Thought It Was’ is a slog enlivened by some surprising moments. One of these comes on penultimate track ‘Paradise’, when Timberlake reunites with his NSYNC bandmates for what is essentially a contemporary version of a Y2K-era boyband ballad. It’s a bit drippy but also unexpectedly touching, not least because Timberlake generously shares lead vocals with former bandmate JC Chasez.
But in a way, ‘Paradise’ points to a larger problem: a prevailing lack of vulnerability and warmth that his career would benefit from at this point. In recent years, Timberlake’s reputation has been dented by a timely reappraisal of the way he emerged relatively unscathed from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show controversy while his duet partner Janet Jackson was scapegoated.
Meanwhile, Britney Spears‘ fans have pointed out compellingly that Timberlake treated the singer less than chivalrously in the wake of their 2002 breakup. At a recent gig in New York, Timberlake told the audience before singing ‘Cry Me A River’, his 2002 hit widely presumed to be about Spears: “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to absolutely fucking nobody.”
Because of this, Timberlake is a less beloved pop superstar than he probably should be 25 years after he sang “It’s gonna be may” on an era-defining NSYNC banger. ‘Everything I Thought It Was’ shows he hasn’t lost his vocal chops or ability to work a groove, but it doesn’t do enough to make you block out past misdemeanours. For now, Timberlake’s problematic fave era will have to wait.
