Review Summary: damn.
10 of 13 thought this review was well writtenMy apologies in advance, I know there are opinions galore flying about your screen lately toward the latest entertainment phenomenon Justin Timberlake’s suave
The 20/20 Experience. Forgive me, but what almost everyone seems to be doing when critically speaking of this album is analyzing it from some extreme introspective lens that should be reserved for looking upon historical art like the Mona Lisa, that Peter the Great statue in Moscow and Eddie Murphy’s career – things that seem ugly, uncomfortable and maybe even a bit unnecessary at first glance, yet with those lenses is their beauty realized and you’ll also see that all good things came before Y2K. Now I’m not saying this album is unworthy of being measured with a notion toward that true sense of art, because dammit this
is art, all seventy minutes of it, but what I keep wanting every review I’ve read to touch on the most is how much damn fun this experience actually is. I haven’t been this immediately moved by a pop album since
My Beautiful Dark Fantasy, and yeah, there’s some conjecture that I’ll leave to Pitchfork to no doubt wring dry of any sentimentality by the end of this decade, but it’s telling that two contenders for album of this decade have occurred within three years of each other, and are both an expression of pop reimagined. Enough with that though because in the here and now we’re dancing.
By now it’s understood why (or why not) this album is something of a force for 2013, largely, the production, which is a breath of fresh of air in a world that has become drowned below heavy European club beats and countless terrible dubstep impersonations. Even more astonishing is who’s breathing that life out –Timbaland. The shock here isn’t that this album thrives off his genius fingertips, but that his fingertips still have some intelligence behind them to create the magic heard on
The 20/20 Experience. The biggest testament to this acknowledgement is “Don’t Hold the Wall” an infectious seven minute dance (read:sex) song that absolutes absorbs the listener into a world where there are no walls and the beats carry the beat of your heart. As the pulses fire more rapidly the energy rises in sync, and Justin is left as tour guide through the tribal drum beat that swallows a majority of the tracks soundscape while chants of dance surround. This builds steadily to the rhythm break four and a half minutes into the track and the song takes a detour that most of the album is masterful at executing.
Yes masterful. Look this album has thousands of avenues to take but it’s good for one reason. You’ll want to dance many times throughout one track. The maad city rnb album is here. Whats most unfortunate is people will read those first two names in the album review and pass judgment. You know what’s better? Laughter. The heart of all cures. Let those rejoice.
