Song of the Day - Mirrors - Justin Timberlake

Here's one of Justin's most recent hits as we begin a new work week.  The song is one of my favorites off The 20/20 Experience. It's very sweet.  Oh, and by the way, Justin will be storming Yankee Stadium later this week for two shows with Mr. Jay-Z.  Should be a slammin' show!

Justin Timberlake - Mirrors by CineStars

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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Blue Ocean Floor'

rapgenius

The last cut on The 20/20 Experience is my least favorite, and I cut it out of my Currents folder straight away.  The seven-minute plus track is a slow-moving downer, and I don't care if you like Justin so much that you find what I say appalling, but I absolutely hate this one!  Check it out if you must right here.

Also, check out the rest of my track reviews from The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum

Tunnel Vision

Spaceship Coupe

That Girl

Let the Groove Get In

Mirrors

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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Mirrors'

The 9th track on The 20/20 Experience is also the album's second single, and it is much more radio-friendly than Suit & Tie.  Like many other tunes on the album, this one is long, coming in at a total time of eight minutes, six seconds.  Of course, the song is pared down for the single release, which is fine because the last couple of minutes of it is kind of a waste.

Mirrors is a nice love song, with a nice melody and a nice hook.  Billboard culls the tune a more "whole"  Timberlake than the brokenhearted one on his earlier song, Cry Me a River.  Indeed, just check out these lyrics:

Aren't you somethin' to admire?
Cause your shine is somethin' like a mirror
And I can't help but notice
You reflect in this heart of mine
If you ever feel alone and
The glare makes me hard to find
Just know that I'm always
Parallel on the other side

Sweet, huh?  Yes, this one is going to do well I think.  Check out Mirrors for yourself, and check out my reviews of the first 8 tracks on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum

Tunnel Vision

Spaceship Coupe

That Girl

Let the Groove Get In

AZ Lyrics

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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Let the Groove Get In'

thatgrapejuice

Are ya comfortable, right there, right there

Let the groove get in, feel it right there

'Groove' is the key word in this song, as that is its main appeal. Let the Groove Get In is a fast and funky track that'll have em' moving on the dance floor, with the above lyrics repeated over and over again to a nice, rhythmic beat, and Timbaland's backing vocals only add depth.  Love it!  Check it out right here. 

Also check out my reviews of the first seven cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum

Tunnel Vision

Spaceship Coupe

That Girl

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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'That Girl'

popdust

Ooh yeah, I absolutely love this song!  This one sounds like one of those great R&B tunes from the 80's, with a smooth, smooth groove and a nice hook.  Oh, and the song starts out with a little skintro by Timba...kinda cool!  I can just hear this one now playing in the background at a nice summer beach party.  Check out a live performance of That Girl.

Also check out my reviews of the first six cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum

Tunnel Vision

Spaceship Coupe





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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Spaceship Coupe'

skreened

Spaceship Coupe, the sixth track on The 20/20 Experience, is a nice smooth ballad.  Justin's vocals on this one are silky and the arrangement is relaxing, even though the interstellar theme is a bit off.  There's even a little hint of funk in music track, which is a nice touch.  Check out Spaceship Coupe.

Also check out my reviews of the first five cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum

Tunnel Vision





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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Tunnel Vision'

Don't know why but girl
I'm feeling close to you, maybe this ocean view
I'm so emotional, and all these stars been dancing on my head
Too long, too long, too long
I wrote a song for you, I wanna sing to you
But every time I'm close to you, the words wanna come out, but I forget
It's so strong, it's so strong, it's so strong

AZLyrics

rapgenius

Now this one's more like it: smooth, quick beats, nice vocals, and a lil bit of hip-hop thrown in!  Tunnel Vision is definitely more my speed, and Timbaland's contributions to this one and the background "I know you lied's" give this one a quality not seen on the first few tracks.  One of my favorites!  Check it out on YouTube.

Also check out my reviews of the first four cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall

Strawberry Bubblegum






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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Strawberry Bubblegum'

popdust

Okay, here's where The 20/20 Experience starts to get a little sleepy for me.  To get a nicer view of this song, check out what Billboard Magazine has to say about it:

The intensity of "Don't Hold The Wall" evaporates, and a cloud of electronic blips, string stabs and snappy percussion tears at the seams of a (relatively) simple R&B tune. Timberlake has rarely sounded more at peace as he does when he intones, "She's just like nothing that I've ever seen before/And please, don't change nothing, because your flavor's so original." The sashaying outro is pleasant, but the main track is sumptuous enough on its own.  

Way too nice for me!  I'm sorry, but Justin does not have deep enough a catalog for me to give him a pass for changing up his style so much.  I've already taken this, and a couple of other songs, off my 'current' playlist on my iPod.  They make me sleepy....Disappointed!  Check out Justin performing the song on Jimmy Fallon if you like, and let me know whether you agree with me.

Also check out my reviews of the first three cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

Don't Hold the Wall





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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Don't Hold the Wall'

whotalking

The next track on The 20/20 Experience is a long, complex one, with soothing tribal beats, smooth singing, and background vocals by Timbaland.  The track gets a little funkier and even sexier about halfway through and it definitely grows on you with a few listens.  This one would work well as a late-night groove in a club.  Check out a shortened version of the more than seven-minute song on YouTube.

Also check out my reviews of the first two cuts on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

Suit & Tie

And you can pick up The 20/20 Experience here:




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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: 'Suit & Tie'

The second track on J.T.'s album is also its first single, and I've already reviewed it in a Music News Bytes from January.  Here's what I said about the song back then:

Okay, now that I've had about two weeks to digest Justin Timberlake's newest song, I've concluded that I'm still not crazy about it.  Compared to 'SexyBack' from his last album, 'FutureSexLoveSound,' this one's a real sleeper.  Oh, it's not a bad song, but hardly a jump-out-loud, must-have song that one might expect from such a huge comeback.  The track is a little too slow for my taste, and like the new Destiny's Child record, it is very R&B.  I've still got confidence, though, that the new record's gonna be slammin! 

I think we're seeing an overall theme to this one, right?  Not FututreSexyLoveSound by any means, but a new Robin Thicke-ish R&B sound...not bad, but a little disappointing for anyone who loved the singer on his earlier stuff.  It's not all that bleak, though.  Just stay tuned...


Justin Timberlake Ft. Jay-Z - Suit & Tie from Timbaland Passion on Vimeo.





Check out my review of the first track on The 20/20 Experience:

Pusher Love Girl

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Justin Timberlake's 'The 20/20 Experience' Track Reviews: Pusher Love Girl

Okay, it's been almost a week since The 20/20 Experience was released, and it's time to start breaking it all down.  The record is a bona fide hit already, almost reaching the 1 million mark in albums sold over the past seven days.  Is that because it's that good, or is it because of the impact FutureSexLoveSound had six years ago and the time that's elapsed since?  There's no doubt that this was one highly anticipated CD, and from my early estimation, the record is good, but it's not that good...not good enough to have done so well so far on its own merit.



I've already mentioned here that the album is more R&B than anything else, and unless you like that sort of Robin Thicke style music, then you might not like it at all.  For what it is though, it is pretty good R&B for the most part, with only one song reminiscent of the last record and a couple of what I like to call "throwaway" tracks.  Most of the tunes on The 20/20 Experience are curiously long...too long for my taste, and for sure must be chopped down for radio play.  The shortest track is the 4th track, That Girl, coming in at 4:58, so that tells you a little of how this one's gonna play out.

We begin our track by track reviews with the first cut, an R&B tune called Pusher Love Girl.  Now this one's got a really nice, soulful groove, and sets the tone for things to come. There's no doubt from this tune that Justin surely has a talent for this type of music and already it's one of my favorite tracks.  Check him out performing the song on Jimmy Fallon:


JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE " Pusher Love Girl " Live At... by UnderProject





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Music News Bytes: Justin, Justin and More Justin...

Music News Bytes is a collection of short news items that I follow on the Web.  If you're into the same type of music I am, that is pop, dance, R&B, and such, check it out...

"So...basically Justin Timberlake just made a decent Robin Thicke album."

- The Man Crush Blog

The 20/20 Experience: Free Live Preview Streaming

rollingstone

In celebration of the impending release (March 19) of his much-anticipated new album, The 20/20 Experience, Justin Timberlake is offering up a free streaming preview of the entire set on iTunes.   As I've been mentioning all along, based on the few things I've heard from the set, the former dance-oriented phenom has gone practically all R&B, and based on the above tweet, I'm not the only one who thinks so.  

As of this writing, I'm only about ten minutes into the hour-plus, 10-track, full stream, and from what it sounds like, the album's definitely a brand new sound for the former FutureSexyLoveSound singer, and not at all unlike the aforementioned Mr. Thicke in that it's pretty good R&B.  I'm still a little disappointed because even though I like that type of music, I prefer Timberlake's dance sounds, none of which I've heard yet.  

In this day and age of online leaks and 'presales,' I'm still a little old-fashioned when it comes to listening to stuff, with the exception of lead singles (like Suit n Tie).  With that said, I'm planning on doing a track by track review, like I've done with M.D.N.A., Unapologetic and Lotus, and so all I've said here about the music is all I'm going to say for now.  In the meantime, you can check it out all for yourself via JT's website and stay tuned here for my track by track reviews.

JT's SNL Appearance a Ratings Winner!

This past Saturday Night, Justin appeared for the fifth time as host of Saturday Night Live and the episode was the highest rated of the season for the Saturday evening standard.  Though I personally missed it, the show featured Timberlake in reprisals of some of his famous sketch characters like in Two Wild and Crazy Guys, Dick-in-a-Box and others, and he also performed Suit n Tie and Mirrors, the second single off 20/20, much in the same setup as he performed at the Grammys.

Of course, being so new and so popular, any vids from the show are unavailable for me to share here with you, but you can check a couple out on Slate.  In the meantime, check out one of my favorites from the past...

Justin Timberlake parodie Beyonce by LeNouvelObservateur

JT/Jimmy Fallon to Spend a Whole Week Together

Yes, Justin Timberlake is everywhere these days, and beginning tonight he'll be spending a whole week on the set with Jimmy Fallon, talking about the new album, and performing a song each night, among other things.  These two have great chemistry together and it should be a whole lotta fun, like this classic, the History of Rap...

'The History of Rap' by Jimmy Fallon and Justin... by le_geek_cest_chic

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