If anyone besides the man himself can with speak with authority on Justin Timberlake’s music, it’s Timbaland, his collaborator across five albums and two decades. The two shifted the musical cultur…
If anyone besides the man himself can with speak with authority on Justin Timberlake’s music, it’s Timbaland, his collaborator across five albums and two decades. The two shifted the musical culture with hits like “SexyBack,” “Cry Me a River,” “Summer Love,” “My Love” and more, and created a new prototype for a kind of hip-hop-informed yet suave strain of pop. Timberlake brought his boy band-honed pop melodies and powerful voice, while Timbaland brought his innovative and intuitive beats and songcraft, honed over years of creating groundbreaking productions with Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Madonna, Drake, Bjork and so many more. It’s a winning combination with a dozen-year-long hot streak, but it cooled in 2019 with Timberlake’s “Man of the Woods,” a more introspective set that was far enough removed from “SexyBack” that fans looked elsewhere for the effortless sense of fun that they’d come to associate with his sound.
But four years later, as Timbaland says below, Timberlake is coming back with a new album that returns to the “fun Justin.” Tim spoke with Variety late last month for his Pioneer Award, which he received Thursday at our annual Miami Entertainment Town event, but this is the Timberlake part of the conversation in full.
How is the new Timberlake album coming along?
I just left working with him, we just finished up and everything sounds great. Now it’s really on him how he plans to wrap it up and how and when he envisions it to come out. With an artist of his caliber, everything has to be aligned, but it’s done and it’s coming.
What does it sound like?
It’s fun Justin — it’s like “FutureSex /LoveSounds” but nothing too heavy, just giving you what you’d expect from us: not overthought, the lyrics are not so deep, it’s bob-your-head, dance-to-it music. Music is a young sport, and you have to keep it fun — fun and young. We’ve both seen a lot of life, but you can’t overthink it because of that, you have to bring out the 13-year-old, 18-year-old again, you know? If not, you can get into the old-fogey stage real quick. (Laughter) That’s just the world we live in.
(Source)
