After a five-year wait, Justin Timberlake fans finally got the album that they’ve been waiting for. Kind of.
On Feb. 2, pop icon and two-time Super Bowl headliner Justin Timberlake released “Man of the Woods,” his fifth studio album. On the surface, it’s an ode to Timberlake’s southern roots and a look back on his illustrious career. But a deeper look reveals that it’s a messy, confused conglomerate of seemingly every music genre ever.
The album leads off with its first single, “Filthy,” which is one of Timberlake’s initial experiments with electronic beats. On my first listen, I thought that “Filthy” was weird, disconnected and straying away from what made Justin Timberlake a star. However, after more listens, I found it’s catchy hook - “put your filthy hands all over me, no this ain’t the clean version” - getting stuck in my head for hours at a time. I guess America felt similarly, as the song didn’t skyrocket like a JT single should, but was catchy enough to peak at #16 on Billboard’s Pop Chart. Overall verdict: not terrible, but I was left expecting more from Timberlake.
After that injection of techno-pop, Timberlake decides to go in a completely different direction, just two songs later. “Sauce,” the third song on the album, is a mix of soul and funk with a guitar background that adds a strange rock element. On its own, I think this song would have been a clean, interesting change of pace from Timberlake’s pop background. But on an album with country and techno-pop songs, it just feels out of place. Timberlake is usually a master of creating fresh, innovative songs that push what we thought we knew about him as an artist. But this song felt like a failed experiment and fell short of the collosal expectations that I had for JT.
You can listen to "Sauce" on Spotify by clicking the link below:
Despite two questionable experiments, there were some songs that I did enjoy on the album. “Supplies” added a rhythmic element of hip-hop combined with a western country beat in the background. Throw in some fantastic lyrics (“I’ll be the light when you can’t see, I’ll be the wood when you need heat, I’ll be the generator, turn me on, when you need electricity”), and this creation proved worthy of having the name Timberlake attached to it.
Additionally, a smooth country collaboration with Chris Stapleton in “Say Something” was very nice to listen to after this rocky rollercoaster of an album.
Overall, I would give this album a 5/10. There were indeed some catchy songs, but the constant theme of disconnection was too hard to ignore. “Man of the Woods” simply didn’t feel like a whole piece of art. It was more of a collection of songs that could have succeeded on their own, but didn’t build off of or add to each other. It was a good effort from Timberlake to redefine himself as more than just a pop star, but “Man of the Woods” simply fell short.