Justin Timberlake’s third album, “The 20/20 Experience” takes Timberlake’s retro soul fixation on a cushy, tripped out journey through groove land. The 12 time-heavy tracks are freighted with clever coyness and playful sensuality, backed by producer Timbaland’s beats and experiments in his sonic playpen. The songs or tracks aren’t in a hurry and they veer and turn in time to a shifting pulse that doesn’t limit their ideas.
Timberlake’s tenor voice guides these groove excursions as he and Timbaland tweak his voice into neo- soul ecstasy. They achieve much through the way of reverb, echoes and old keyboard/synthesizer sounds, bathing the music in lush hooks and simple strong beats.
The songs are as much Timbaland’s as Timberlake’s: JT’s vocals acting as riffs against the languorous washes of bass hooks and techno funk minimalism.
Timberlake and company reach back several decades to the early ’70’s experimental soul era. From this angle comes free-form grooves and Timberlakes’ vocal hooks often, consisting of call-and-response with himself or looped voice samples from older sources. It works brilliantly on several tracks: “Don’t Hold the Wall”, “Tunnel Vision”, and “Let the Groove Get In”. These are sound and hook-driven rhythmscapes that flow on through tangents and left hand turns before they resolve themselves, unexpectedly but logically.
It’s a ride, for sure, and they’re reaching beyond 21st century R&B. On this album, structure is fluid and aimed at allowing Timberlake and Timbaland to trip out and pursue vocal ideas and shifting textures. The groove frees up the process and songs move through stations in a slinky procession. “Strawberry Bubblegum” is a long player that pays no heed to traditional pattern and benefits from the free -associating pace. Call it electro-soul; groove experimenting tracks as opposed to form-conscious songs.
As the music is concerned with romantic themes and goofy come-ons, Timberlake hails the spirit of Barry White and Isaac Hayes.
“Spaceship Coupe” is a mini epic in the candle light and wine soul tradition and the wine has been spiked with something hallucinogenic. “The 20/20 Experience” summons a vintage soul production presence with soft, booming sounds. It updates the sensibility with loops, echoes and clever vocal filtering. Harsh club mixes aren’t allowed here.
As well as bringing the sexy back, Timberlake’s humour rears up throughout the recording. He makes like an intergalactic funky robot on “Body Count”: “Sign up, put your name down/make my body count” he intones on a song that’s the closest thing this disc gets to a familiar Timberlake rave up. It’s solid ear candy of the highest order.
— Dean Gordon-Smith is a musician based in Vernon, B.C. His column, Street Sounds, appears every Friday in The Morning Star.
