Listening Group Week 10: Justified by Justin Timberlake

Here it is folks, The one you have all been waiting for, What angry at the world album will crazy old PG pick?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Timberlake.png

Now unlike most in this series of threads I don't have some deep connection to the album. I guess that is indicative of the fact I have no soul.

Anyway the reason I chose this album is because this was the album that got me into modern music. I know this sounds daft as I was sixteen at the time of release, But growing up I just listened to what was played around the house etc. So a lot of 60s/70s/80s. We didn't have sky so never watched mtv etc. However in 2002 a wonderful invention called freeview was born and thus I had access to music videos and the first one I saw was Like I love you and it instantly made me a fan and so this became the first album I ever bought myself.

I am not going to lie and say it is the best album ever or that every song is a banger but what it is to me is a really good debut album with a bit of something for everyone I think :)

Anyway hope you enjoy and if you don't then apologies.

Well I did not expect that :lol:

Throwback. Like I Love You and Cry Me A River were my songs. Nice!

Smartest thing JT did was team up with Timbaland. He was one of the top tier producers of that time and it really fit Timberlake's style of dancing and singing.

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Originally Posted by Nash Diesel

Smartest thing JT did was team up with Timbaland. He was one of the top tier producers of that time and it really fit Timberlake's style of dancing and singing.

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And to an extent The Neptunes.

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Originally Posted by BGMaverick

And to an extent The Neptunes.

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Oh yeah can't sleep on the Neptunes.

Very fun album, classic JT music. I had never listened to it aside the big singles. Only song I didn't enjoy was "(And She Said) Take Me Now" which I just found jarring. Sang along to the ones I knew. Good choice!

"Cry Me A River" is super fresh. Beat is on point, the little Timbaland appearance fits perfectly.

What I like about Tim's beats are that a lot of times if he can't find the right sound, he just does it beatbox style. If you listen to this song you can hear that it's him and probably JT doing the drums and not a drummer, not a program.

I really only like Rock Your Body, out of the singles. I'll have to give the other non-single tracks a spin.

I am almost certainly going to find this to be unbearable with sprinkles of "oh, I know that".



The sprinkles of "oh, I know that" turned out to be a singular sprinkle with the obvious Rock Your Body.

It wasn't unbearable, just not remotely in the ballpark of what tickles my musical interests. Back when people listened to the radio, this was definitely playing on a station I never listened to.

Its 2002 I'm back in the Student Union, It's Friday night, I'm drinking the Uni "special" drink, it will stain my clothes and burn the floor if I spill it. Whats the DJ playing? Nelly, and now... It's the Trouser Snake.

This is not an album I am ever going to own or listen to again, but I can appreciate this for what it is.
Justin Timberlake performed at the Eurovision song contest a few years ago while the votes were being counted (yes I watch it with my wife, she really enjoys it, we drink as many beers from as many of the countries as we can, its fun)
The contrast between JT and the Euro contestants was sizeable. He just smashed his performance, very professional. He is someone that is very good at what he does. He can just keep doing it 2002 if that's alright.
My wife heard me listening to this and now keeps playing it, so this catchy fucking pop music is really fucking stuck in my head. Thanks.

Any objections to TBM taking next Wednesday?

:lol:

Some of these are just extremely well put together pop songs. When I was in a band at Uni we did a cover of Like I Love You which went down a storm in all of the two gigs we played it. Cry Me A River is one that stands out over the overplayed stuff. Love that track. Some songs like Rock Your Body are just dancing songs and I'd never play them at home - made for the dancefloor and that's it IMO.

But the singles have been overplayed everywhere to the extent that it's hard for me to take a "new" look at them. I hadn't heard the rest of the album before, and predictably, it's a very well produced and melodic album, but I just can't connect to it on a personal level. It's the same with me and anything from Michael Jackson, which is clearly a massive influence on this.

What did you play in the band? I hope it was the keytar.

He was the Bez.

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Originally Posted by The Beer Monster

What did you play in the band? I hope it was the keytar.

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Singer-songwriter. Lyrics man mainly. But the music came easy as well so.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, that's not totally true. I wrote half the songs and did the rhythm slash lead guitar in a three piece. We were called The Pennydrops. The band that could have been.

Get the guitar.

I will get this (and Grims one) done tomorrow or Tuesday as I have a week off.

I really don't think I am going to enjoy this one to be honest but we shall see...

Well I never ever thought I would listen to a Justin Timberlake album in my entire life. I do quite well these days to avoid chart music (I couldn't name any songs by Bieber or Grande for example) but I am aware of some Timberlake songs, actually other than the B&S and Manics albvums which I knew already this will probably be the one with the most known tracks on for me. Is that a good or bad thing? Let's see...

I promise to keep my snobbishness away when listening to this....here goes...

Got to admit the title doesn't fill me with hope. Justified? OK then...pun on his name maybe?

Just realised this is from 2002? 17 years ago?? That's scary that!

I have heard Senorita before. Not my thing at all. Ahhhhh, ohhhhhh ahhhhh.... etc, hate all that. I hate speaking bits too.

Have heard Like I Love You too. It sounds like every song I have heard of his to be honest.

I dont like this music, it reminds me of standing in shite moody bars with my workmates a few years ago whilst everyone waved their fannies at each other with an angry look on their face, nobody talking or laughing or anything. I hate all that shit, they used to all think I was weirdly miserable on nights out (I mean, I was...) until they want to a good indie place or somewhere where I would start to dance and they couldn't get their head around the fact that I liked a different type of music to them. Of course they didn't dance to my music and we moved on to the next moody shite place...

Oh No What You Got has got some nice samples in there I guess. The song does nothing for me though.

I assume Take it From Me is music people play when trying to get it on with others. Hmm maybe that's why I don't get it on as much these days, women are not sexually aroused by Pantera?

Alright I will say this once and once only. Cry Me a River is actually a pretty good pop song. Not my thing at all but I get why its one of his best known songs. I find it somewhat acceptable.

Oh I know Rock Your Body too. Did not know it was called Rock Your Body but yeah this one is fine in the same way as Cry Me A River is. Its not as good as it but it's kind of OK. This one was definitely played in aforementioned bars though.

Nothing Else is fucking terrible. It's all over the place.

Last Night is boring. Sounds like everything else really. Timberlake has got a decent voice I guess. I will give him that.

Still on My Brain is more horny teen music.

Is every song on this album about shagging? Take Me Now surely is unless I am missing some very subtle sub plot? I hate songs about shagging.

Right For Me Sounds like the theme to the Cosby Show only less molesty.

Honestly I have switched off here after the known tunes half way through the album. Mentally not physically.

I wouldn't drive listening to Lets Take a Drive, I would fall asleep at the wheel.

Never Again is an apt finish to the album as I am never listening to this album again. It's actually a fairly nice song in an unoffensive way to be fair. Some really nice classic guitar and piano playing in this one.

So yeah.... props to PG for throwing a curveball into the mix. It was certainly different and I can see why JT is popular (Because a lot of people have shit taste in everything) but he is one of the more talented boring pop people out there. I will never ever listen to anything of his purposely again but I can appreciate the ability there.

But nah, hated it, I knew I would and it held no surprises for me.

I am going to listen to my choice now to treat my ears...

:lol: :heart:

Like a lot of pop records, the first half of this album is far better than the second. Tracks 1-4 all sound familiar and aren't bad at all and Cry Me a River is obviously pretty decent. Rock Your Body is the best tune on it by miles and probably the only one I'd go out of my way to play. The rest of the album is very meh. Cheers for this most unexpected selection Griffin.

:cheers:

She’s playing it again.

Forgot to put my review for this one.

So this one was always going to be an interesting one to review because of how well I knew the singles but had never listened to the full album. But being able to remember exactly when these songs came out allowed me to easier remember what the musical landscape was at the time these songs came out. Pop music did and realistically still does make up the majority of the music I listen to if solely because it's what I would have on the radio back when this first came out, to what they play on the radio at work. Popular music like this is not going to be the most complex or the most thought provoking music. What it does is create mostly inoffensive music with a couple songs that bury themselves in your head because of a catchy hook. This album does that. Hard for me to really judge whether the singles would always have been the most catchy, but I think so. Like I Love You, Cry me a River and Rock Your Body were my preferred songs from the album, never really liked Senorita. Probably because to me the guy who did Bye, Bye, Bye saying Senorita always came off extremely cheesy. As for the non-singles I can't think of any of them that stood out to me on listening to them.

Of course we do have Rock Your Body to blame for the delay on live TV thanks to the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident so this album in a way does have quite the mark on North American culture.

Reading the other reviews, The Rosk mentioning the Michael Jackson influence is pretty spot on because I think I remember that a bunch of the songs on the album were initially written for MJ but he rejected them.

Interesting choice.

This is a case where the hit songs were actually much better in my opinion. Usually it's the opposite to make a song have new playability.

You can see where he gets his style of today. Michael Jackson seems like a fair shout. Not an overly huge fan of this album I would maybe put Cry Me a River and Rock your Body to a list. Other than that, I am not a huge fan of Let's take a Drive.

I love 20/20 Experience and can see some of it here, but it's not nearly as polished or easy to listen to.

I started to listen to this on my car ride to work today. Before I listened to it, I thought it was going to be one of those albums where I liked the singles and nothing else.

I liked Senorita, which is surprising because I'm sure I used to hate that song. Like I Love you is just great, I think this might be my favorite on the album. Didn't care for (Oh No) What You Got. Take it from Here was surprisingly excellent. Think I might give that another listen to either on lunch break or my drive home. Cry Me A River, eh, not really a fan of. Might be his most well known but I don't mind it, just not something I'm going to set out to listen to. Love Rock Your Body. I think I was rocking my body in the car. Nothin' Else was boring for me.

And this is where it fell apart. I saw Last Night was the title of the song, and I thought "I haven't heard Last Nite by the Strokes in a while", so I put that on after Last Night by JT played. So, I still have to listen to the last five tracks. Maybe lunch break? Probably for the best, don't think I can take a lot of Justin Timberlake in one sitting.

Old man Murphy has finally got Spotify and I plan to get around to listening to these albums. I meant to start the Charles Bradley one the other day, but didn't have the time.

Was never a JT fan back in the day, but my tastes have softened a lot over the years, so.