| Product Summary | | Label: Jive | | UPC: 00828768806227 | | Release Date: 9/12/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202922537 | | Item#: M35273 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
|
|
|
|
| Song Listing |  |
| | Music critics and highbrow listeners may look down their nose at Justin Timberlake, doubting that the celebrated former N'Sync leader is good for more than light, frothy dance-pop. Timberlakes's sophomore effort, Futuresex/Lovesounds, should make both camps rethink that stance. While the album certainly sets out to entertain, it's also full of ambitious, well-constructed grooves that prove the superstar is serious about getting down and dirty. The album steps up the Michael Jackson-influenced sound of Justified by delving deeper into club music, hip-hop, and funk, creating a bumping, writhing soundtrack for a set of songs unabashedly about sex.
Timberlake spared no expense recruiting some of the best producers on the scene. Beatmaker extraordinaire Timbaland is a primary collaborator, and his experimental stutter-funk landscapes make for the album's best moments (the title track, for example, or the spare, driving lead-off single "Sexyback"). Early Prince is a major touchstone for much of the disc, but Timberlake also draws on rolling, Dirty South jams ("Chop Me Up") and smooth, urban-contemporary loverman R&B ("My Love"). Its obsession with the bedroom notwithstanding, Futuresex/Lovesounds shows Timberlake moving toward an exciting musical maturity.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Justin Timberlake (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, background vocals); Justin Timberlake; Timbaland (vocals, rap vocals, various instruments, drums, programming, background vocals); T.I., Three 6 Mafia (vocals, rap vocals); will.i.am (rap vocals); Bill Pettaway, Paul Blake, Smokey Hormel (guitar); John Wittenberg, Brian Benning, Gloria Justin, Mari Tsumura, Richard Adkins, Jennifer Levin, Pamela Gates, Yvette Devereaux, Natalie Leggett, Igor Szwec, Emma Kummrow, Josephina Vergara, Michele Richards, Susan Chatman, Mark Cargill, Charlie Bisharat, Mario Diaz de Leon, Tereza Stanislav (violin); Matt Funes, Cameron Patrick, Patrick Morgan, Jimbo Ross, Davis A. Barnett, Darrin McCann, Andrew Duckles (viola); Timothy Landauer, Jenny DLorenzo, Suzie Katayama (cello); Jeff Clayton , Valarie King (flute); James Ford (trumpet); Clarence McDonald (organ); James Gadson (drums); Lenny Castro (percussion). | | Audio Mixers: Timbaland; Jimmy Douglass; Andrew Scheps; Serban Ghenea. | | Recording information: Akademi Mathematique Of Philisophical Sound Research, L; Arch Angel Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Chung King Studios, New York, NY; Conwaystudios, Hollywood, CA; Encore Studios, Burbank, CA; The Document Room, Malibu, CA; The Studio, Philadelphia, PA; Thomas Crown Studio, Virginia Beach, VA. | | Photographer: Terry Richardson. | | Music critics and highbrow listeners may look down their nose at Justin Timberlake, doubting that the celebrated former N'Sync leader is good for more than light, frothy dance-pop. Timberlakes's sophomore effort, FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS, should make both camps rethink that stance. While the album certainly sets out to entertain, it's also full of ambitious, well-constructed grooves that prove the superstar is serious about getting down and dirty. The album steps up the Michael Jackson-influenced sound of JUSTIFIED by delving deeper into club music, hip-hop, and funk, creating a bumping, writhing soundtrack for a set of songs unabashedly about sex. | | Timberlake spared no expense recruiting some of the best producers on the scene. Beatmaker extraordinaire Timbaland is a primary collaborator, and his experimental stutter-funk landscapes make for the album's best moments (the title track, for example, or the spare, driving lead-off single "Sexyback"). Early Prince is a major touchstone for much of the disc, but Timberlake also draws on rolling, Dirty South jams ("Chop Me Up") and smooth, urban-contemporary loverman R&B ("My Love"). Its obsession with the bedroom notwithstanding, FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS shows Timberlake moving toward an exciting musical maturity. | | Give Justin Timberlake credit for this: he has ambition. He may not have good instincts and may bungle his execution, but he sure has ambition and has ever since he was the leading heartthrob in *NSYNC. He drove the teen pop quintet to the top of the charts, far exceeding their peers the Backstreet Boys, and when the group could achieve no more, he eased into a solo career that earned him great sales and a fair amount of praise, largely centered on how he reworked the dynamic sound of early Michael Jackson at a time when Jacko was so hapless he turned away songs that later became JT hits, as in the Neptunes-propelled "Rock Your Body." That song and "Cry Me a River" turned his 2002 solo debut, Justified, into a blockbuster, which in turn meant that he started to be taken seriously -- not just by teens-turned-adult, but also by some rock critics and Hollywood, who gave him no less than three starring roles in the wake of Justified. Those films all fell victim to endless delays -- Alpha Dog aired at Sundance 2006 but didn't see release that year, nor did Black Snake Moan, which got pushed back until 2007, leaving Edison Force, a roundly panned Shattered Glass-styled thriller that sneaked out onto video, as the first Timberlake film to see the light of day -- but even if silver screen stardom proved elusive, Justin didn't seem phased at all, and his fall 2006 album FutureSex/LoveSounds proves why: he'd been pouring all his energy into his second album to ensure that he didn't have a sophomore slump. | | If Michael Jackson was the touchstone for Justified, Prince provides the cornerstone of FutureSex/LoveSounds, at least to a certain extent -- Timbaland, Timberlake's chief collaborator here (a move that invites endless endlessly funny "Timbaland/Timberlake" jokes), does indeed spend plenty of time on FutureSex refurbishing the electro-funk of Prince's early-'80s recordings, just like he did with Nelly Furtado's Loose, and Timberlake's obsession with sex does indeed recall Prince's carnivorous carnality of the early '80s. But execution is everything, particularly with Timberlake, and if the clumsy title of FutureSex/LoveSounds wasn't a big enough tip-off that something is amiss here -- the clear allusion to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below would seem like an homage if there weren't the nagging suspicion that Timberlake didn't realize that the OutKast album bore that title because it was two records in one -- a quick listen to the album's opening triptych proves that Justin doesn't quite bring the robotic retro-future funk he's designed to life. Hell, a quick look at the titles of those first three songs shows some cracks in the album's architecture, as they reveal how desperate and literal Timberlake's sex moves are. Each of the three opening songs has "sex" sandwiched somewhere within its title, as if mere repetition of the word will magically conjure a sex vibe, when in truth it has the opposite effect: it makes it seem that Justin is singing about it because he's not getting it. Surely, his innuendos are bluntly obvious, packing lots of swagger but no machismo or grace. They merely recycle familiar scenarios -- making out on the beach, dancing under hot lights, acting like a pimp -- in familiar fashions, marrying them to grinding, squealing synths that never sound sweaty or sexy; if they're anything, they're the sound of bad anonymous sex in a club, not an epic freaky night with a sex machine like, say, Prince. But Prince isn't the only idol Justin Timberlake wants to emulate here. Like any young man with a complex about his maturity, he wants to prove that he's an adult now by singing not just about sex but also serious stuff, too -- meaning, of course, that drugs are bad and can ruin lives. Like the Arctic Monkeys deploring the scummy men who pick up cheap hookers in Sheffield, Justin has read about the pipe and the damage done -- he may not have seen it, but he sure knows that it happens somewhere, and he's put together an absurd Stevie Wonder-esque slice of protest pop in "Losing My Way," where he writes in character of a man who had it all and threw it all away...or, to use Justin's words, "Hi, my name is Bob/And I work at my job," which only goes to show that Timberlake lacks a sense of grace no matter what he chooses to write about. | | Graceless he may be, but Timberlake is nevertheless kind of fascinating on FutureSex/LoveSounds since his fuses a clear musical vision -- misguided, yes, but clear all the same -- with a hammyness that only a child entertainer turned omnipresent 21st century celebrity can be. Timberlake yearns to be taken seriously, to be a soulful loverman like Marvin Gaye coupled with the musical audaciousness of Prince, yet still sell more records than Michael Jackson -- and he not only yearns for that recognition, he feels entitled to it, so he's cut and pasted pieces from all their careers, cobbling together his own blueprint, following it in a fashion where every wrong move is simultaneously obvious and surprising. There is no subtlety to his music, nor is there much style -- he's charmless in his affectations, and there's nothing but affectations in his music. At least this accumulation of affectations does amount to a semblance of personality this time around -- he's still a slick cipher as a singer, yet he is undeniably an auteur of some sort, one who has created an album that's |
Producer: Justin Timberlake; Timbaland; Rick Rubin; Timbaland |
Engineer: Ethan Willoughby; Andros Rodriguez; Dana Nielsen; Padraic Kerin; Jeff Chestek; Jimmy Douglass; Jason Lader |
Musical Guests | | Timbaland | | T.I. | | Three 6 Mafia | | Will.I.Am |
| | Artist Overview | | Though he first came to fame as a member of the definitive boy band N Sync, Justin Timberlake gained superstar status after stepping out on his own with his first solo album in 2002. JUSTIFIED showed that there was more to the then-21-year-old Timberlake than teen pop, highlighting the young singer's pronounced R&B influences and positioning him as the Michael Jackson of the early 21st century. However, it was on FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS that J.T. proved himself a true artist, bringing "sexy" back as well as intelligent, well-crafted pop music aimed at a universal audience. The seemingly unstoppable star was able to forge a legitimate film career, brush off controversies that appeared to immobilized his contemporaries, and go on to become on of the most popular and ubiquitous artists of his generation. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 09/12/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 062 | | Label : Jive Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00828768806227 |
|
| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.86)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[H]is best new tracks are thrilling....Some of the up-tempo stuff flirts with mechanical muscle-flexing..."Rolling Stone (p.106)
- Ranked #26 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[O]ne of the year's most enduringly pleasurable hits." Entertainment Weekly (p.70)
- "Superior tracks like 'LoveStoned' and 'What Comes Around,' suggest a happy middle path, where Timberlake can equally embrace Timbaland's canny beats and his own vocal helium." Entertainment Weekly (p.128)
- Ranked #4 in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Records Of 2006" -- "[T]he two Tims create a boldly forward-thinking soundtrack for nocturnal amusements like club cruising and rump shaking." Q (p.122)
- Ranked #36 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "[A] hyper-confident mix of stripped-down R&B and '80s electro soul." Vibe (p.142)
- "He's still got a lithe, lovely vocal instrument and a falsetto that evokes El DeBarge." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.116)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "[The titles] leave no doubt as to the chief Timberlake brand value, and the louche synth funk and electro-flavoured R&B therein make a pretty seductive back-up argument." Rolling Stone 7 of 10
On his 2002 solo debut, Justin Timberlake was so delighted with his own audacity he could make jaws drop just by saying "good morning" to the ladies. On his skilled but sometimes labored follow-up, however, the liberated 'NSync frontman bears the weight of experience that drags down so many maturing lovermen. No longer an innocent on the cusp, he knows more about sex than you do, and when he talks about whips he doesn't mean cars. Why this or anything else qualifies Justin in particular -- rather than Usher, say, or new confederate Will.i.am -- to "bring sexy back," as the follow-up's Timbaland-produced lead single boasts, isn't altogether clear. Although his best new tracks are thrilling -- even the smashing "SexyBack" is trumped by the classic-Timbaland "My Love," where bells introduce what will become an abstractly twisty beat and a T.I. cameo is only a fillip -- some of the up-tempo stuff flirts with mechanical muscle-flexing. Except for the Rick Rubin-produced finale, "(Another Song) All Over Again," the ballads could make you wish the "love sounds" of the title were gasps and squeals. And the well-meaning anti-crack song is a clueless embarrassment. - Robert Christgau
|
|
| | Bio | | Though he first came to fame as a member of the definitive boy band N Sync, Justin Timberlake gained superstar status after stepping out on his own with his first solo album in 2002. Justified showed that there was more to the then-21-year-old Timberlake than teen pop, highlighting the young singer's pronounced R&B influences and positioning him as the Michael Jackson of the early 21st century.
|
|
| |
|
|
__USERID__
http://www.buy.com/prod/futuresex-lovesounds-explicit-version/q/loc/109/202922537.html
| Customer Reviews | ![]() | | Production |  5 | | Performance | 5 | | Composition | 5 | | Overall Satisfaction | 5 |
| |
5 of 5 Great CD A Must Buy Friday, October 27, 2006
A Listener from Chicago, IL
I love this cd beacuse it shows a different side of JT which is welcome change. My Fav songs on this CD would be Damn Girl, My Love, Summer Love, and Sexy Ladies. If you bought JT's last CD You Have To Buy This CD !! Was this review helpful?  
5 of 5 Justin Rocks Again Monday, October 02, 2006
Adam Palmiter from Mount Snow, VT
What an awesome CD! It has moments of "ugh" with a couple of the ballads and the poor attempt at talking about crack habits, but the pop/jazz songs are amazing. Was this review helpful?
|
Look For Similar Products By Category |
