Let's anticipate Justin Timberlake's Man of the Woods...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVU-MmJZFFA

https://www.theringer.com/music/2018/1/2/16841108/justin-timberlake-man-of-the-woods-album-announcement

It's like, wild West, but... now, y'know?

In any case, I'd like some new Timberlake, so I guess it's time to get hyped.

Huh. Didn't like his last couple - maybe I never heard them all the way? - but looking forward to this.

I saw from Timbaland re: the new Timberlake: "The music we just made?" Timbaland says, shaking his head. "It's gonna put him on another plateau." Was he in that video? Just saw Pharrell.

(BTW, had no idea Timbaland was struggling with pain pills, which he supposedly starting taking in his 30s to deal with nerve issues he suffered after getting shot as a teen. Might explain Timbo's erratic output for a while there.)

"Can't Stop the Feeling!" has become an inextricable part of watching my nieces grow -- it's blasted at every event

Well, it's called "Can't Stop the Feeling," right?

Timbaland interview:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/timbaland-kicked-oxycontin-self-doubt-to-stage-comeback-w512403

man the nostalgia

https://youtu.be/sR9UwFwVPPw

I haven’t even listened to his latest album but if Timbaland is back to form, this could be interesting.
It’s a pity Timbo kinda lost it since the mid 00 or something. Especially when you consider all the things Pharrell has done in these 10y +...
I didn’t know he had drugs issues though. Good for him that he kicked them.

that Rolling Stone article linked says Timbaland having a pretty brutal oxycontin habit for most of the 00s (and seemed insightful about the transition in the music world from the trope of the drug dealer who hustles & makes money to the drug user who Has Big Fun)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA-NDZb29I4

no idea what to make of this, if anything the weirdly dated wubs + rock bridge & intro remind me of "madness" by muse? at least it isn't 8 minutes

look what we made him do

Aw that stadium rock thing is horrible. The rest sounds like an irritating sexy funk jam. Not a good start for this new album.

it's a bit of a mess that track, and despite not kicking in for a good minute and a half, ends up being a little slight and boring

those wubs really don't help the track much. if you're going to revive brostep 3 years too early, at least do something interesting with it?

feels like an attempt to make a Prince b-side. pleasant enough jam though imo

I like it fine. Won't dread it.

it appears justin timberlake has accidentally posted a twitter comedian's setlist parody, what a terrible mistake

MOTW https://t.co/oydnUMzBE8 pic.twitter.com/24vYbTachJ

— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) January 5, 2018

also I just had a horrific thought that A.K. and C.S. stand for Alison Krauss and Chris Stapleton

The CS does stand for Chris Stapleton, but the AK is Alicia Keys.

even worse

"Flannel" by Justin Timberlake
"Flannel" by Justin Timberlake
"Flannel" by Justin Timberlake

at least 16 tracks means he's probably cut down on the codas this time

also I just had a horrific thought that A.K. and C.S. stand for Alison Krauss and Chris Stapleton

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine), Friday, January 5, 2018 9:37 AM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The CS does stand for Chris Stapleton, but the AK is Alicia Keys.

― MarkoP, Friday, January 5, 2018 9:45 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even worse

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine), Friday, January 5, 2018 9:50 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i went through this whole dynamic in my own head when i read the tracklisting

i assume "breeze off the pond"/"livin' off the land"/"the hard stuff" is his extremely personal song cycle about choppin' wood

Not a great song, but remember when he was talking about listening to Dirty Mind all the time, and then the subsequent album had no trace of that? At least this sounds plausibly like JT & Timbo taking some inspiration from early Prince.

always remember: "Alicia Keys" and "even worse" go hand in hand.

Ahah that tracklist...
Maybe it’s a joke album in the same spirit as « Dick in a box » ? (actually I have difficulty listening to his « sexy » songs without thinking about his sketches...).

ticks in a box

he made the box himself

Also the big revelation from that RS piece is that Timbaland produces at home on Ableton now

feels like an attempt to make a Prince b-side. pleasant enough jam though imo

― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, January 5, 2018 5:35 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah like an unreleased track from Planet Earth

Filthy might be half decent when it's finished.

Disappointed he didn’t cover « Knock On Wood » on the album. Maybe as a b-side!

especially after that horrendous trailer i was ready to completely dismiss this entire project, call it "man of the whites" and so forth, but i have to admit to rather liking "filthy"! of course it's his previous track record and industry clout that permits him to do this, but it's nice to see someone who tends to aim right down the middle go for something at least somewhat audacious -- he could have easily just dropped a track with 3.5 minutes of moaning in a thin falsetto the way at least one up-and-coming twink imitator at top 40 is currently doing to modest success. there are interesting touches both in the backing track and in his vocal so i imagine i'll be coming back to it for a little while at least.

(the full album could still turn out to be abysmal. i haven't liked most of his music since futuresex/lovesounds.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vnmgZLA8s

the follow up is just as confusing

maybe jt is a prepper

JT clearly loves Black Mirror.

so are we out of the woods?

So JT is the unabomber now?

lmao what the actual fuck is this

i dont dislike this

these videos are v v Trenchant Social Commentary tho lol

This is better than "Filthy" but my god that video is... something.

I fear the WTFness of the video is distracting us from how lifeless and mediocre the song is.

let it be clear, the "what the actual fuck is this" also referred to the quality of the song

the WTFness of the song meant i still haven't really taken in just how bad the video is yet

his dancing is really shit in the video too. isn't he usually a pretty good dancer? everything about this is so fake and stupid, the choreography, the styling, the Trenchant Social Commentary. it's clearly all top-down imposed and nothing to do with JT, despite what he says in the trailer video. It just seems very confused, he's talking about bringing it back home and trudging through the fields in a big woolen cape (styling error!) and now we get this mess which seems completely disconnected from the supposed theme.

is that sequins or rhinestones around the edge of his hoodie, because WHAT

also wtf was the budget for that shit video?

JT acting like he’s giving some sort of woke message on the video while the lyrics are sex and then he’s there gettig it on with Eiza Glz (who does look insanely sexy in the video tbh) but then there’s that kid saying “wake up” and then there’s all the faux rural/hipster/indie/ aesthetic for the album... I don’t know what he’s trying to say but I’m hating it.

I dug the main groove - felt like a Timbaland loop pedal jam. The bridge was weak. The video looked very expensive.

i assume "breeze off the pond"/"livin' off the land"/"the hard stuff" is his extremely personal song cycle about choppin' wood

It’s like side 2 of Hounds of Love but in a forest.

except that would be good

the chorus to supplies is dreadful

the weirdly country-tinged verse is also dreadful

ok so this album will be a trainwreck apparently.
too bad, I would have enjoyed a Timbaland come-back...

ugh, thank god for lauren jackson
http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/exploring-justin-timberlakes-relationship-to-black-music.html

his dancing is really shit in the video too. isn't he usually a pretty good dancer?

This was the exact thing I said to my 13-yr-old son, after he texted me the link to the video. (The full content of his text: "JUSTIN IS TOO WOKE BRO ... but seriously this is one of the worst music videos I have ever seen")

Looks like the Neptunes (!) actually produced most of the album, including 'Supplies'?

Mediocre Neptunes is much less disheartening than mediocre Timbaland.

Funny, listening to these new tracks (and to some older ones I used to really like) I realize I (finally) find his voice really annoying/bad (nasal, trebly + silly gimmicks).
Actually, watching that latest video, his face and moves are also ridiculous and I can't help thinking about these old Lonely Islands pastiches !

ugh, thank god for lauren jackson
http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/exploring-justin-timberlakes-relationship-to-black-music.html

― austinb, Tuesday, January 23, 2018 2:33 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feel like this piece forgot to make a point

Meanwhile, both “Filthy” and “Supplies” offer much to interrogate in terms of racial analysis, in visual and in sound. [remainder of piece only talks about visuals]

& fails to draw any conclusions from them

supplies is one of the worst songs i've heard in a rly long time

it's so bad

Going to be a weird Super Bowl halftime if he does these instead of "SexyBack."

looking forward to justin's treatise on how he personally slaughtered and skinned a pig to make a football

Official Music Video directed by La Blogothèque

ok, lmao

This album title (and the dumb making-of video) keeps making me think of this recent Dollop podcast: http://thedollop.libsyn.com/307-naked-joseph-knowles

he managed to release a song that's just dull instead of a trainwreck

ahah, he keeps on giving !

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/justin-timberlake-say-something-ft-chris-stapleton/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video

the opening of the Say Something video makes me think of this and lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWxgGrVaAQ

a minor point but whoever did the lighting in the Say Something video should be sacked. You can't see anything.

Is that video actually live like in other blogoteque videos? I think it’s impressive if that’s the case even if aided by playback.

Song is decent compared to previous singles, lyrics are terrible.

That intro is laughable though that limmy comparison is otm

tackiest part in the supplies video is when the pyramid with one eye is lit up and flames in front of those worshipping people

i was driving thru north GA and they were talking about this on local talk radio with the 2 DJs (a man and a woman) promoting the upcoming tour. they played a really short clip and it was just overprocessed generic radio garbage. when it cut back to the DJs they said "They doesn't sound like country for an album called Man of the Woods". that was it, they didn't play the song, they started talking about something else.

its a missed opportunity cos Justin Timberlake is actually from Tennessee and grew up outside of Memphis singing in gospel choirs. he could be a modern Elvis if he wanted but he wants to sound like a generic robot instead. imagine if he had recorded a non-EDM album of him singing country songs. i think he might have the chops to do something good and not just millennial whoop stuff. he knows tons of musicians, he could easily throw a band together, probably with alt country guest stars and stuff. they could play new material and songs he learned as a kid and sang w his family etc. have it produced by Jack White.

not just millennial whoop stuff

all of the songs from this have been dogshit so far but we don't have to invent bad things about them

i'll be your generator
turn me on
when you need electricity
because electricity is needed
for powered devices

i think he might have the chops to do something good

also this is neither here nor there, i enjoyed the first part of 20/20 when it came out but literally nothing timberlake's done since 2013 has suggested that he cares about music

wow that video is a fuckin disaster

blade runner 204hate

I was expecting an album filled with these:

https://youtu.be/9Aq4a7g_wdU

https://youtu.be/W7eYaJr1j-0

this is such a disastrous album. i'm 11 songs and what feels like three hours in

"sauce", the title track, "flannel", some of the most abysmal songs i've heard in years

there's an interlude in the middle where jessica biel talks about how she feels like she's "his" when she wears her husband's shirt

people have been citing "montana" as a highlight but to me it just sounds like a run off the mill album track from...idk chromeo or something

anyway! i hate this and hope it flops really hard! #justiceforjanet

I love this song so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baj6llvgpWA

i do really like that one

It’s not terrible but it goes to show timbaland and timberlake are severely out of touch.

ahah, oh wow that "Man of the Woods" song/video !
it confirms that it's all just a joke...

Does the album have a song called "Chiggers"?

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5a73f551d12a6971e06f6de7/2:1/w_790/Justin%20Timberlake%20Man%20of%20the%20Woods.png

lol

the bear is a deep cut nod to his role as Boo Boo in the Yogi Bear movie

people have been citing "montana" as a highlight but to me it just sounds like a run off the mill album track from...idk chromeo or something

― monotony, Thursday, February 1, 2018 9:11 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

think it’s just bc it’s the first sign of life after “flannel”

every song feels about two minutes too long but this time around the songs are only four minutes long anyway

I guess he thinks the Neptunes are his Jimmy Jam-Terry Lewis: co-creators of jams and ballads that sonically endlessly reinvent themselves.

I just got to the lyric, “But then your hands talkin’, fingers walkin’/Down your legs, hey, there’s the faucet.”

oh no

I swear to god this album and its videos are a tribute to the unabomber.

The pitchfork pan is pretty good

Timberlake may have yanked back the reins on the interminable song lengths of The 20/20 Experience, but many of these tracks still manage to overstay their welcome by a minute or two. They don’t have the hooks or the dynamism to justify their continued existence: phrases get recycled, breakdowns feel like intrusions from completely different songs, grooves are sought but remain undiscovered. “Midnight Summer Jam” is a sub-Robin Thicke boogie with a sub-John Popper harmonica solo; “Sauce” is Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself” cut with a jug full of pond water. And there’s no refuge from the lyrics, which in many places engender the same mix of emotions you’d confront upon walking in on your parents having sex.

It's a clavinet not a harmonica

Walking in on your parents having sex is an accident, not an embarrassment.

Walking in on your parents not having sex is an embarrassment.

Length of song would be irrelevant if the songs were catchy and hooky (see: almost all dance music ever made).

Walking in on your parents having sex is an accident, not an embarrassment.

There's a poll idea in here.

Walking in on yourself having sex is potentially awkward.

Don't give him any ideas for his next black mirror cyber video.

“Sauce” is Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself” cut with a jug full of pond water

read this as "poon water"

I'm calling it now: highlight of halftime show will be Janet performing Rhythm Nation, with JT sidelined a la Coldplay that year.

Walking in on yourself having sex is potentially awkward.

― Ned Raggett,

"Hey, Alfred, what's – whoa! Sorry!"

"Hey, man, it's all good. Join me!"

Ah, Florida.

There's the faucet? what does that mean?

Ah, Florida.

― Ned Raggett,

The state with the prettiest, etc

There's the faucet? what does that mean?

*extremely Dave Chappelle voice* pussy juice

It's a clavinet not a harmonica

if this is the case (haven't heard the song) the rest of the review can be written off, people who can't tell a clav from a harmonica are not qualified to write about music

No, I was wrong, it's a harmonica, courtesy of Elliott Ives. Huge self own

Rolling Harmonica Self Owns '18

mixtape for after you get harmsonned

? That's definitely a harmonica, though barely a solo.

hey a harmonica cell phone would rule

xpost Ha.

Man, that song was so annoying, like the worst ringtone for 5 minutes.

not sure I want to listen to the rest of the album after these 3 singles...

I fuck w/ a lot of this album btw

specifically tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 14 & 15

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/justin-timberlakes-man-of-the-woods-album-review-w516240

That's a lot of songs to fuck with, I'll give you that.

i basically agree with whiney's review except i'd give it a lower rating. album doesn't really recover from "wave" -> "supplies." i like "the hard stuff" tho

also good review whiney, the sentence about "sauce" is amazing/hilarious/otm

Ha – Whiney dislikes the songs I think are okay.

xpost Thanks, I was glad they let me keep that.

oh fuckin hell Alicia Keys

Sorry, Whiney, can't read your review because people who can't tell a clav from a harmonica are not qualified to write about music

surprised that your review is so... positive !
so there are some good songs in there ?
hum. I might give it a try, then...

i also think “flannel” sucks, he overloads the cheese which i’d normally be down with but the song is so lazily constructed and not even interested in itself

there are some ok-to-good parts on this album but i can’t emphasize enough how much “wave” and “supplies” are black holes down which all my good faith toward the record completely disappears

also it’s prob naive to go into a justin timberlake album without steeling yourself for some really bad lyrics but the lyrics on the title track absolutely ruin it for me

I thought his first two albums sounded pretty effortless, and I still like them. I think the last couple have sounded like they were given way too much thought, which is a bad strategy for someone who is not a deep thinker. Would have been better if this one was just JT goofing over leftover Bubba Sparxxx beats.

"Breeze Off the Pond" is so far the only one that makes good on its title.

but then I like when JT goes acoustic over beats. I may be the only person who dug "Not a Bad Thing."

i like “not a bad thing”. i think that’s why i like “the hard stuff” too

Speaking about parent sex, the last song dedicated to his son has this line:

“Beautiful boy, got it from your momma
Damn, she look good, you might get a sister”

Or a pony.

Craig S Jenkins's take

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/on-man-of-the-woods-justin-timberlake-sounds-bored.html

http://uproxx.com/music/justin-timberlake-man-of-the-woods-takedown-culture/2/

That is absolutely fucking rich coming from URPOXX

*UPROXX

The site that called ?uestlove a sell-out for not screaming about politics on a comedy show is exhausted about takedowns

So hijacking the thread to guess about the superbowl performance.

Which songs do you think he’ll perform? Will it help the perceived failure of this comeback? Which guest artists do you think will feature or will he do it solo?

Maybe Pharrell? Timbaland? Chris Stapleton? He said this in a press conference:

When asked if he would have special guests during the halftime show, Justin responded, "I think Vegas has a lot of odds on it, I heard. You know, from NSYNC to Jay z to Chris Stapleton to Janet”

So hijacking the thread to guess about the superbowl performance.

Which songs do you think he’ll perform? Will it help the perceived failure of this comeback? Which guest artists do you think will feature or will he do it solo?

Maybe Pharrell? Timbaland? Chris Stapleton? He said this in a press conference:

When asked if he would have special guests during the halftime show, Justin responded, "I think Vegas has a lot of odds on it, I heard. You know, from NSYNC to Jay z to Chris Stapleton to Janet”

i like “not a bad thing”. i think that’s why i like “the hard stuff” too

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, February 2, 2018 8:35 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not a bad thing is my fav new jt (post fs/ls) tune
the fallon perforamcne was cool
just an effortless song.
hard stuff sounds good yup.

6 Albums Out Today You Should Listen To Instead of Justin Timberlake

I'm very glad I'm not the type of herb that would rather listen to Rhye and Rich Chigga than Justin Timberlake

6 Albums Out Today You Should Listen To Instead of Justin Timberlake

― flappy bird, Friday, February 2, 2018 11:48 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

....... huh

Lol what did Justin Timberlake did to pitchfork? It frels personal at this point.

Them and Sgum were doing the same trampoline flying dunks for Eminem's last album. They're coming for Jack White next

I think the new hipster poptimism means a real tribal sense of calling anything super mainstream either REALLY REALLY GOOD or REALLY REALLY BAD. It's almost like the old college radio vs mersh divide but recalibrated for a world where Rihanna is the Pixies

easy target & easy way to get points for dunking on a white dude perceived to be making a 'back to my roots' (white) album after years of working with black musicians

The only album on that list being reviewed today besides justin’s is field music. Good enough to get recommended over JT but not good enough to get reviewed

Them and Sgum were doing the same trampoline flying dunks for Eminem's last album. They're coming for Jack White next

I think the new hipster poptimism means a real tribal sense of calling anything super mainstream either REALLY REALLY GOOD or REALLY REALLY BAD. It's almost like the old college radio vs mersh divide but recalibrated for a world where Rihanna is the Pixies

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, February 2, 2018 2:20 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark

i think it's an interesting thing to track but also all the albums in this group -- JT, eminem, katy perry, even gaga to an extent -- are not very good and could easily be argued to be really really bad

the story might be what you're describing or what the uproxx post is describing... it could also be that major pop stars are for some reason dropping really bad albums

the taylor album is the only one to buck this trend in a sense but she's a whole other ball of wax

the miley cyrus album too

xpost He'll do a new single, a medley of hits (Trolls song, Rock.Your. Body, SexyBack, Mirrors), bring out Stapleton then end with Janet doing Rhythm Nation, which will make everyone immediately forget what preceded it.

eh given my personal experience recently, whiney's got a point

i meant, the miley cyrus album was also trashed for being a country record

i like rhye :)

idk, the Eminem, Taylor and JT albums were all certainly on the low end of quality in their career arcs but I wouldn't call any of them "BAD" when compared to their other work.

Katy Perry was p bad tho

i like rhye :)

― bhad and bhabie (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, February 2, 2018 12:26 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me2 sorry whiney. but I listened to the jt album early this morning so I finished my most important homework first.

you thought revival was good?? lord ave mercy

And then we're getting back into the whole pre-2001 record store jerkoff way of thinking once we get to "Man, Justin Timberlake is bad, but you know what is good? King Krule"

doing myself a favor by not listening to this album until the discourse makes up its damn mind as to whether it is worse to like it or dislike it

you thought revival was good?? lord ave mercy

There's a gulf of opinion between "good" and "bad"

None of which make for good internet, btw

^^^^

also, that list of pop albums is kind of cherry-picked. lots of major mainstream pop artists have gotten middling-to-fine reviews. Fifth Harmony, Camila Cabello, the Weeknd, Halsey, Harry Styles, Kesha maybe, Bruno Mars before last week, Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato...

Literally two of those people are remotely in the same sphere of fame as Taylor, Justin and Em

5 years ago all the indie sites were breathlessly praising The 20/20 Experience despite it being fairly middling and bloated

going by relevance/charts/sales right now, opposed to cumulative. Taylor, sure, but no one would call Eminem a relevant artist today, and Timberlake's running on fumes (and Trolls).

also, that list was somewhat off the top of my head. other very mainstream pop artists in the tepid-to-decent range: Pink, maybe Britney, Adele would probably qualify, maybe even Justin Bieber, pretty much all the charting EDM acts besides the Chainsmokers

And then we're getting back into the whole pre-2001 record store jerkoff way of thinking once we get to "Man, Justin Timberlake is bad, but you know what is good? King Krule"

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, February 2, 2018 1:29 PM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly my man you're the GOAT at strawmanning

i'm listening to highly relevant rapper skyzoo's new album today

Rhye album is good btw :( dont trash it.

And then there's this thread

Justin Timberlake's Man Of The Woods album reviews are in. #ManOfTheWoods pic.twitter.com/5WR9Pn9bCS

— Kenny M (@kennaymart) February 2, 2018

What's weird about this backlash is that it's not even just about him making a dud record. There seems to be this theme running through these reviews that's like "oh, that stuff of his you thought was really good 10 years ago? It was actually really bad!".

The Uproxx article is hypocritical, sure, but it also seems pretty otm.

i dislike this record but i hate the internet

Purpose was a pretty great pop album, actually.

it was not

while “Breeze Off the Pond” leans on a layered-harmony trick Timberlake’s been using for a solid decade, it also invites you to imagine him taking a stoned canoe trip soundtracked by “Tiny Dancer.” Timberlake is such an abjectly poor lyricist that scraps like these feel like manna from heaven.

wtf that sounds rad.

"Breeze Off the Pond" sounds like some "On the Beach" b-side

the words, not the song, obviously. the song is just generic dance pop

do you dance?

"Breeze Off the Pond" is my favorite song, but no way is it a dance song.

Montana is decent

Montana is great yeah.

JT solo and no songs from the new record. Wise choice. The logistics behind the halftime show are insane

Oh hey I’m at the superbowl btw! Greetings from Minneapolis.

lol Man of the Woods! still looks like a Nilla Wafer

the vocals seemed really recessed?

thought he did fine but not performinh like i love you was a real misstep imo.

didn't watch :)

How's you end up at the Super Bowl moka?

my mom liked the halftime show

I got invited by inbev with other 15 people from all over Mexico for selling too much beer in 2017 in our bars.

Also I won $600 dollars for betting against patriots with some of them haha they’re bad losers and they’re a bit salty now. Great vibes all around despite the patriots sore fans but minnesota is way to fucking cold and noone is in the streets partying in here.

Great vibes all around despite the patriots sore fans but minnesota is way to fucking cold and noone is in the streets partying in here.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

Yeah, it's been brutal today. The last couple of weeks have been pretty unbearable in general. I moved here from the U.K, so still get used to how crazy it can get.

Watching the performance just now, it looks like he really didn't do much singing and when he did it sounded a kinda off. The Prince tribute didn't really work either, especially when he tried to sing along. It all seemed a bit flat.

Cant get the bbcode to work but I took this one during the prince tribute:

https://m.imgur.com/a/hxxmU

Dont know how it look on tv but there were some purple led lights in each seat and we were instructed to turn them on qhen the prince tribute started. It looked beautiful from my view.

I thought the halftime show was fine, I guess I never understand what ppl expect out of it.

it was weird how the knives are out for Timberlake, felt like the thinkpieces were half written before the thing even happened, especially since they went up so quick

My favorite description of JT was as the only member of N*Sync that did not look like he was actively struggling to count dance steps. That said, I saw a JC Chasez solo show (before he was apparently shamed into retirement) that was awesome.

Watching the performance just now, it looks like he really didn't do much singing and when he did it sounded a kinda off. The Prince tribute didn't really work either, especially when he tried to sing along. It all seemed a bit flat.

Yeah, I've just watched it and mostly agree. Pretty bad vocals. As for the show in general, nothing special but it was ok/showbusiness as usual, I guess.
Funny that it's been 16 years since "Justified"... He's as relevant as MJ in 98 (16y after "Thriller"), isn't he ?

still disappointed that the other members of N*Sync never came out. how do you do 50 songs in 20 minutes but not find time for "Bye Bye Bye"

also this is my tired 31-year old ass talkin' but there was a whole lot of "I thought that one was Bruno Mars" last night

his outfit was something else, though : shirt with animals/the wild pictures, camouflage suit, geeky bandana...

xp had the same experience. For some reason I now casually misremember every Timberlake song I passively enjoy as being by someone else

I have one nice thing to say about his latest album : I find the funky part of "Filthy" alright, now (not the parts where his vocals go up at the end of each phrase though).
The stadium rock part is still awful.

when i first heard JT was doing it i didn't know about a new album and my first response was: why?

he just doesn't seem currently hot or legendary which is what they usually go for. and it seemed like they should have had other people singing with him. other than prince. even katy perry brought out lenny and missy. he's not gaga or springsteen.

It was a monument to underachievement.

Oooof.

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27540477_1927375237576119_5343099423332664354_n.jpg?oh=1eae5fbcc0ef741fc8bde8873843738f&oe=5B183222

ahah, yeah, that kid seemed kinda lost there !

main thing i got from the halftime show is that jt's band is awesome

would i could hear they sounded great

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/justin-timberlakes-super-bowl-halftime-show-meh-personified/

it was definitely kinda meh.

i enjoyed pink though.

The disrespect. pic.twitter.com/3lCCjkYjQc

— The Athlete's Plug™ (@TheAthletesPlug) February 5, 2018

the most over the top moment last night was the intro song/video by some country singer i'd never heard of. it was like nashville gaga.

oh wait i do know carrie underwood i just didn't recognize her.

what's a super bowl without ludacris?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldvl33e44PI

performance was pretty meh, the sets and staging were very cool, though. but

he's not gaga or springsteen

he's a bigger star / more qualified to do this w/o guests than gaga!

i don’t get the shoe photo

creased his incredibly rare brand-new Jordans! (sneaker heads don't crease their shoes)

You can’t crease the Jordan IIIs, bro. This is a huuuuuuuge violation https://t.co/mwlBHHU6kk

— tristan walker (@tristanwalker) February 5, 2018

I thought it was fine/boring, it lacked the bonkers charm to me anyway of the Katy Perry one...his outfit was so dumb, male pop stars are so boring.

The Prince thing was weird just cuz like..what was the point? It was in Mpls? Prince did a good halftime show once?

If you really wanted to do a Prince tribute just get Morris Day & the Time out there or bring the Revolution out as yr band (of course then you run the risk of getting yr ass handed to you onstage)

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis spotted rocking out to Bob Mould on Saturday night is a zillion times more appropriate nod to "Minneapolis" (barf) then just yelling out the town's name a bunch.

the prince thing was def shoehorned in but the lights and symbol outside the stadium were really cool. getting the time to play would have been all time but 99.9% of the viewers would have had no idea who that was.

I thought the halftime show was fine, I guess I never understand what ppl expect out of it.

it was weird how the knives are out for Timberlake, felt like the thinkpieces were half written before the thing even happened, especially since they went up so quick

― bhad and bhabie (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, February 5, 2018 7:41 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

right, it was pretty clear at least judging from my timeline that if you were one of the people who had been dragging him for the past couple of weeks, you also hated the performance. (there was a lot of “janet would have been better”, which, without commenting on whether that is true or not, says a lot about the reliability of the commenter). it was a pretty objectively tight performance, good song choices, good choice of prince song, all around solid

I think the new hipster poptimism means a real tribal sense of calling anything super mainstream either REALLY REALLY GOOD or REALLY REALLY BAD. It's almost like the old college radio vs mersh divide but recalibrated for a world where Rihanna is the Pixies

— whiney

nuance doesn’t get you retweet$

is this album his Smiley Smile

objectively tight? his vocal was often terrible and the opening bit’s sound seemed like it had been put through a melon baller. also the arrangement of “my love” was way too massive - obv it’s tv and a stadium but it just sounded like an awolnation remix of the original

the vocals were really bad, no presence at all

it just sounded like an awolnation remix of the original

lol and otm

yeah good call ha

if you were dragging Justin Timberlake for the past few weeks I don't really see how a reheated clip show (the best-case scenario for most Super Bowl halftime shows, realistically) could be expected to win you over

I don't really see how a reheated clip show (the best-case scenario for most Super Bowl halftime shows, realistically)

that's what i'm saying, i just don't really understand what the point of complaining about the super bowl halftime show is, outside of the shark wackiness it didn't seem that far off from katie perry imo which everyone seemed to think was so great

complaining about things is americas actual pastime

maybe it should be the halftime show from now on

people thought Katy Perry was great?

i thought her halftime show was

she was pretty good but the shark made it

the show is always just as much about the spectacle as it is the performer tho so I include them all as a package deal

Katy was great. my memory is fuzzy but when she rode ... something? ... way up into the air singing Roar, I think? that was awesome!

^^^ lol i have an identical half-formed memory of that

xp maura I didn’t really notice how bad the vocals were, they sounded fine to me but there was some crosstalk at my watch party so maybe it warrants rescreening. everyone I watched with thought the choreography was solid tho, and I personally thought the song selection was on point. like UMS said above, I guess I just don’t know what people are looking for in a halftime show if that was bad

right, this is kind of the point of the halftime shows......?

oops that was an xp to this:

the show is always just as much about the spectacle as it is the performer tho so I include them all as a package deal

― Hi diddley dee, hen fapper's life for me (Neanderthal), Monday, February 5, 2018 2:28 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xxxp that nytimes piece was indeed probably written before the show, yet at the same time is pretty much otm. Especially when highlighting how Janet Jackson was vilified and JT can go about like nothing happened.

I do find it weird when people get rockist about a Super Bowl halftime show. I think the Black Eyed Peas one was the only recent one I considered completely terrible.

The Who were pretty bad

i watched with a music savvy crowd on a tv with a nice soundsystem
that said the “it’s supposed to be background noise” argument is a ... strange one? jt’s voice and the mixing itself was bad, and it was noticeable even in the context of the telecast

People generally like JT, he's had a lot of hits (both solo and with a group), he's a modest singer but a very good performer, and he's had decades of experience entertaining huge crowds. That he had all of that going for him and was still pretty indifferently received indicates something was not firing right, technical or otherwise. Not enough spectacle? Played it too safe? The fundamental thin-ness of pop without enough distractions (costumes, explosions, choreography)? Something like that. Doesn't help that as much as I like a lot of his stuff, very little JT is particularly exciting, let alone rousing. Probably why stuff like Mirrors and the Trolls song did so well. They're more conventionally anthemic, though that is probably too strong a word.

agree with all that ^ but everyone remember "we" exist in a bubble, no matter who you watched it with. 90% of norm women/kids absolutely loved it, 75% of norm men rolled their eyes and wanted "real" music and 25% of norm men did the whole "i can't believe i'm going to say this but i think the guy is very talented and seems like a cool dude" thing to contrast the eye-rollers.

the scores of millions of people who loved it aren't in yr twitter timeline

we had about 15 kids (12 and under) watching it and they were all like "this is weird / lame" "i dont like this who is this" and then 'cant stop the feeling' came on....

my 1 year old girl was rocking back and forth the whole time, my 3 year old boy paid no attention at all

I think y'all are on to something here

I tried to convince my 3 yr old to watch cuz "there are people dancing, you like people dancing" she was non-plussed and demanded we watch whatever she wanted to watch.

i watched with a music savvy crowd on a tv with a nice soundsystem
that said the “it’s supposed to be background noise” argument is a ... strange one? jt’s voice and the mixing itself was bad, and it was noticeable even in the context of the telecast

― maura, Monday, February 5, 2018 2:28 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Vocals sounded weird/bad to me but I was unclear if it was on purpose or a bad mix or what

Usually in these sorts of situations where I assume there are scads of professionals working on it when stuff sounds weird to me I just think its me and not that it's bad or mistake

What are you going to believe, your ears, or science?

I assume all terrible sounds are aesthetic choices

man of the woods title track is some looney tunes shit, what the f was he thinking

eheh, exactly !
Why not for a cartoon ost or something but on an album (and more so a supposedly "serious/spiritual/whatever" album)...

I got suppli-yiii-yiiiiieees

"supplies": because "Carry Out" wasn't bizarre and strained enough a metaphor

how many jt songs are extremely strained metaphors. i relistened to 20/20 the other week and as far as i can tell it's almost all of them

lol i forgot about "carry out"

i relistened to 20/20 the other week

congrats: if you can prove you finished it I'll nominate you for a Nobel.

da lex on j-tim.

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/is-justin-timberlake-losing-his-way-1.701958

what i wrote on lex FB. which is probably totally wrong but i kinda would have liked to see all-in faux-cowboy JT for some reason. i think it was that village people handkerchief that made me wish for it:

Scott Seward "if he really wanted to get woodsy he should have made a big pop-country album with huge nashville hitmakers handing him hooks for days and a smash duet with t-swift that premiered AT the halftime show. would have been the biggest seller of the year in the u.s."

i agree with you there. somewhere along the way whatever message he meant to come with got muddled.

"say something" isn't horrible; maybe shoulda just done an album of duets with Stapleton if he wanted to be in this lane?

i can't imagine Timberlake's voice over a country-ass country song

I have this feeling he just does not care that much anymore. There's some good songs in there, but even these good songs leave me with the impression another younger/hungrier artist would have made it better.

Perhaps he should go the Charli route and release mixtapes of shit he really cares about. This whole album with a concept thing just seem so heavy on him.

Also, christ, 16 songs. I know this is the streaming era, but please edit.

if i was ever a recording artist, i would release 8-song albums with 12 bonus tracks each with a 5 second sound effect from a synth preset just to goose the numbers

my big takeaway from watching him sing and dance in HD on a giant TV was: wow, Justin Timberlake is 37 years old

Tom Brady is 40.

Timberlake eats tomatoes, he won't make it to 40

probably wears sunscreen too

So I've tried to listen to more of this album.
the father/son stuff is awful, the husband/wife stuff is cringey, the looney tunes song is wtf, etc.
"Montana" which seems to be the favourite song for many people is just meh to me.
I think the only thing I enjoy is "Higher Higher". And the funky part from "Filthy" (minus some of the vocals)...
Good job JT !

lmao what the actual fuck is this

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine), Friday, 19 January 2018 05:44 (three weeks ago) Permalink

^^ otm