This isn’t really a sequel. It’s more like the second half to a set of songs that were supposed to stand on their own. The first Experience wasn’t originally presented as an incomplete project, in other words, so this part 2, released just a few months later, comes across as a tacked-on bonus of sorts. What Justin Timberlake should’ve done was limit the Experience to one album of the best, or most fitting, songs from the two. It’s not as if most, dare I say any, of the 21 are too damn good not to have been released.

Timbaland does a commendable job of providing a sleek soundscape; listen in high-end headphones for small but pleasant surprises in the mix; but Timberlake’s vocals, essentially the songs themselves, are consistently lackluster. The soul dance vibes of Take Back The Night does channel Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall, as noted by many listeners since its first single release, but it would’ve been one of that album’s worst songs and I don’t even consider Off The Wall one of Michael Jackson’s best albums.

If the original 20-20 Experience album was, in fact, supposed to be the only one, that would explain why most of these songs sound like rejects from a slightly better album. Even the song sequencing, which puts a ten-minute vampire ode at track two, seems somewhat random. The fact that every track has to do with girls and romance isn’t so much of a problem, because the first Experience was the same way, but there should be some kind of conceptual clue in the set title. The 20-20 Love Experience perhaps?

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

Timbaland needs to shut up. The decision to use him and co-producer J-Roc was a wise one; their grooves are sleek and often superb; but he rarely, if ever, has anything poignant to add vocally. His signature ad-libs serve as not much more than a minor distraction made major because it happens too often. This is a Justin Timberlake album, after all, and though Timberlake is no master poet himself, he does have a pleasant singing voice and a knack for vocal melody. For comparison’s sake, since it would take an artist at least near Michael Jackson’s level to take the King Of Pop crown, you can call Justin Timberlake a modern-day Andy Gibb. Like Gibb, as creatively limited as it is, most of his songs have to do with girls and romance. In the case of this album, they all do.

Besides stealing Barry White’s music and emulating Prince’s falsetto, the set begins and ends with a random metaphor. The Love he has for his “baby” is a drug addiction. Their romantic getaway is a Blue Ocean Floor. Even Let The Groove Get In, a party anthem that simply encourages people to dance, is focused on “little mama”. It’s also built around an annoying party chant that’s abandoned for a much better 1970s-style floater about three-fourths in. Most of these songs make grand transformations at some point. That Girl, the skit-like intro of which throws things off a bit, isn’t much to look at and I don’t see anything special in Mirrors, but much of this 20-20 Experience, the title of which allows for such corny visual puns, is dazzling enough.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013

audio review : The 20-20 Experience [ 2 of 2 ] ( album ) … Justin Timberlake