Sound Session: The 20/20 Experience

For quite some time it had been rumored that Justin Timberlake would release a second album this year. Earlier today, the musician eliminated all the grapevine chatter by confirming — via social media — that the second installment of The 20/20 Experience would indeed be releasing September 30.

The 20/20 Experience album cover

It has been nearly two months since Timberlake released the first installment of The 20/20 Experience, the third solo album of his career. And if what the musician refers to as Part 2 of 2 is at all similar to Part 1, then we are truly in store for a masterful project.

Featuring ten tracks, The 20/20 Experience is a compilation of ageless, melodic tunes so astutely crafted that we, as fans, are wholeheartedly forced to forgive Timberlake’s musical hiatus, and recognize that this project was worth the wait. As a result, for this month’s Sound Session, I have selected five of my personal favorite tracks from the album.

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Critics of this generation’s pop music often argue that decades from now we will not be able to deem any of the music from this era as classical. However, Spaceship Coupe is a clear-cut contradiction, and a spirited flip of the middle finger to such an assertion. Timberlake channels a futuristic Smokey Robinson in this soulfully stirring tune, which can certainly resurface thirty years from now.

The album features several jaunty tracks. Nonetheless, Blue Ocean Floor serves to be somewhat of the album’s pelagic lullaby. This is the most soothing record on The 20/20 Experience.

Tunnel Vision is the most diverse track on the album. This song bridges the gap Timberlake may have still shared with a [more urbanized] male fan base. Embodying the quintessential production of Timbaland, the record can definitely be classified as a banger!

Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z

Despite the fact that Suit & Tie, featuring Jay-Z, was the album’s first released single — and much ado was made about it — Mirrors is the signature track of The 20/20 Experience. Timberlake vocally hits a grand slam, and unconditionally embeds himself within the record. Dynamically composed, Mirrors is both euphonious and hypnotizing. The record possesses the ability to completely overcome you to the point that, before you know it, you’re vigorously belting out every word — in the library, during finals week.

The most underappreciated record of the album — and perhaps because it is only available on the deluxe edition, though all the more reason to purchase it — is Dress On. This is the sexy, feel good record of the album. If one doesn’t subconsciously bob their head, or tap their feet to this track, it is safe to assume their musical soul is banal.

About Sirelle Carter

"The words you speak become the house you live in."
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