Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (2013)

The most notable thing about Timberlake's one-two punch of albums is that they have a combined length of two hours and twenty four minutes. Even in separate halves, they are both seventy minutes or so. It's hard enough for a movie to justify a time longer than two hours, and even harder for an album. Is Timberlake justified to make music this epic in length?

Really, Timberlake can do whatever he wants. But The 20/20 Experience takes a hit because of how massive it is. Not only are the albums long, but the songs are too. Many of them are at least five minutes in length, but many of them reach to eight, nine minutes or more. The opener of part one, "Pusher Love Girl" is eight minutes, but doesn't feel as much like one song as it does multiple. This idea of songs composed of multiple different parts is continuous between both projects.

It's universally recognized that the first part is the better of the two, and I agree. Timberlake's previous album, Futuresex/Lovesounds sounded like the pop music of the future, but with the first part of 20/20, Timberlake takes a step back in time. "Suit & Tie" sounds especially brassy and classy. There's soul influence that Timberlake (and producer Timbaland) use to make the past sound urgent and present. But the album doesn't feel hasty (at least this part doesn't). It all sounds so right and so easy, and I often lost myself in the fact that many of the songs I was listening to were titanic in length.

For part one, highlight tracks include "Suit & Tie", "Tunnel Vision", and the crooning "Spaceship Coupe". Part one is a bit of a big fish, but there's no denying that it's good. Themes of love have been explored many many times, but not in Timberlake's new style.

Part two is solid, but it suffers from high expectations. Part one is a tough act to follow, and unfortunately numero dos doesn't live up to the expectations. The curtain closed with "Blue Ocean Floor", yet Timberlake insists the show must go on. Part two feels hasty, and worst of all: it's a little boring. Not every song from the studio makes the CD because simply not all of them are great. Part two feels like outtakes. The first half feels like lesser substitutions for many songs in part one, and the second half is something else. The second half feels like every musical influence Timberlake's been inspired by thrown on tape. "Drink You Away" is an awful track on the second half of the second part, not only for its personification of drinking, but for its out of place guitar.

I have to note that both halves feature JAY Z on separate tracks, and both Hov features are awful. But for the most part, The 20/20 Experience sounds like nothing else in pop music. Justin Timberlake may need someone to tell him how much may be too much, but when it sounds this good and sexy, who's to say no?

Part 1 - 8/10

Part 2 - 6/10