Futuresex | Lovesounds

The long awaited second album from Justin Timberlake, titled Futuresex/Lovesounds is simply amazing! I was fortunate enough to get a preview of the entire album. Justin has not only drawn you in with his amazing innovative rhythms but also his bordering of music between pop, rock, R&B and hip-hop.

The first single Sexyback is already topping the charts at number 1 in Australia and America (Billboard charts Pop 100, Top Digital Download etc etc etc all at No.1). Lyrics for this song is limited, but it's the electronic rhythms and sounds that draw you in and dance to the beat or at least turn up the volume to listen to something different and unique.

If there was ever any question about whether sexy was in need of reviving--a doubtful proposition at best, given the sheer volume of JT's gyrating counterparts--he lays it to rest instantly over a small but insistent Timbaland-concocted beat. On that track, Timberlake's appeal is his sweet but newly thuggish-sounding voice--here's a good kid gone bad, and he's determined to convince us of it not only by tossing a few well-timed motherfuckers our way but also with such lyrics as "I'll let you whip me if I misbehave."

The rest of FutureSex will feel familiar to anyone who picked up 2002's brilliantly funk-flecked Justified: "Love Stoned/I Think She Knows Me," shifts from Michael Jackson-esque paranoid trilling to pulsating guitar rock; "Chop Me Up," a collaboration with Three 6 Mafia and Timbaland, gives up the grit rap-style but still manages to recall both Prince and Stevie Wonder; "My Love," with T.I., mines classic Timberlake territory with meltaway lyrics like "I can see us holding hands walking on the beach/Our clothes in the sand"; and the straight-up but groovy lament "Losing My Way" asks, searchingly, what may be the silliest question a squeal-inducing pop star has ever posed: "Can anybody out there feel me?"

There are times when Justin blends in his beat-boxing rhythms, which he does oh-so well, into the music which creates the human touch to all that electronic music and static-music. Although his lyrics are not as fantastic as song writers like Rob Thomas or Richard Marx, his ability to blend and bend the sounds in the music to suit his audiences is enough to pull you in to buy this album. I can forsee that most of his songs will definitely become timeless dance-floor anthems once remixed by all those DJs out there.

Justin Timberlake has definitely up the ante and changed the direction of the music industry by continuously challenging and changing the face of music. This album has moved away from his dirty pop music he created when he was with NSYNC into the electronic realm.

I highly, highly recommend this album to anyone who is willing to keep an open mind to how the direction of music should go in the future - an amalgam of sound.

9 out of 10 stars