New Justin Timberlake song "Filthy"

I've finally found the time to listen to Man of The Woods, so here goes;

First off all let me start by saying I fucking loved the album and refuse to jump on the bandwagon off pettiness and the general all-around pissyness towards him from internet trolls and the media, and for that reason alone -this culture of constant naming and shaming that I'm sick to death of- I'm actually in support of him. Hey, if he's offended you in one way or another, deal with it and get on with your life. Bake a fucking cake, visit your parents or feed your kids.

Anyway,

I'm still uncertain on Filthy, it sort of half grew on me but hasn't gone any further then that. I'll tie that in with the fact that I thought the opening to last nights Super Bowl halftime show was a bit clumsy. It's got a groove but it just lacks in something, although I do love the line "haters gonna say it's fake". How true is that?!

Midnight Summer Jam sounds like something from The 20/20 Experience; the Prince and MJ influences are all over it; very Off The Wall in much the same way a lot of the 20/20 Experience was and that's probably alot to do with Pharell's production as it's a theme in the sound that pulls the album together; in other words; consistency. Let me add here that I had a bit of a half-listen of the album a few days ago -my wife had it on- and it didn't grab me, actually I was a little disappointed with what I heard. It was only -tonight- when I sat down and actually LISTENED to it that it really grabbed me and swept me up in it's sound.

Tracks 3 and 4 on first listen haven't really done anything for me; I find the track and video for Man of The Woods just corny and a generic attempt at southern country soul. It's just too deliberate in what it trys to do, and at this point I wasn't very hopeful that I was going to enjoy a whole lot here.

But....

From track 5 onwards this album really comes into its own. Higher Higher which is one of his all time best album tracks is a mix of r&b and soul and as good as anything he's done in the past that would be considered mature. There's an element to Higher Higher that recalls Marvin Gaye that I can't quite put my finger on, and yes it's probably more due to the black music influence; his team more so than anything else incorporate. But it works so well. It's a great track, probably the first great one on here.

Wave starts off sounding a bit throwaway but in the same way a lot of Chic album tracks do, and within the context of this record it's almost a bit of a stop gap or light relief moment between bigger tracks such as Supplies.

Supplies has grown on me a lot within the context of the album. It works so well amongst the other tracks and has an almost Dr Dre feel and influence to it.

Say Something imho is brilliant. It's the perfect combination and balance of what he was probably going for in terms of fusing southern country with r&b and pop. Its the better of the two 'features' credits and it builds to a stadium anthem type finale. Chris Stapleton almost steels the show here and is voice lends to the track exactly what it needs.

Morning Light with Alicia Keys is a slow summer r&b jam tinged with a reggae feel. It should have been something slightly better but as with a lot of A-list features, it's a bit anti climatic and a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Montana is another throwback to The 20/20 Experience and is remicent of Pharell's album Girls. This is potentially one of the big commercial hitters.

Breeze Off The Pond recalls Justified's Rock Your Body but with that Neil Rodgers guitar strumming that Pharell so often employes.

The vocal layering is pristine throughout and coupled with a bass riff and a set of vocal layers is used as the foundation to build the track Living Off The Land around. Its a stunning piece of production that uses a very simple finger picking guitar riff/style and a synth bassnote that runs through the entire thing.

The Hard Stuff is another simplistic modern country styled track with a drum beat -probaly an 808 which is the retro element that's also been a sort of secret weapon for Kanye West- that pulls the theme and sound back to Say Something and gives an overall feel of consistency.

Young Man again lifts directly from the 20/20 Experience album more specifically one of it's best tracks; the single Not A Bad Thing. It's a tribute to his son Silas who's name means 'man of the woods.

Anyhow, haters gonna say it's fake. These are my first impressions. I remember when Justified came out in the early 2000's and Q Magazine giving it a really piss poor review and low grading it only to later include it in their albums of the year list lol.Media, Critic's and the Mob try to dictate what's hot and what's not, but really, if people were able to put their biases and prejudices aside, atleast opinions would be based off of their actual feelings for the music. I've been down that road before with MJ.

Like him, be a fan of his as much as you want but it's quite valid to say some of us are not impressed because he doesn't have creativity and originality of his own. Much of what JT has done if not everything was already done before and A LOT better.

Testifuckingfy

Innuendo, come let me live under whatever rock you've been living under. It sounds blissful.

Oh and TonyR, white privilege.

Ugh, we are reacting to something that is happening in pop culture NOW. So it's not like we are going on about how crap his album is or how meh his performance was for years. These are events from a few days ago, recent developments that are talked about on many music forums. Meanwhile sometimes old issues come up, but that's natural in any conversation.

That's what the internet is now. It's broadcasting your opinion on a matter you aren't that interested in, but you by sure as hell want tour opinion heard and hashtagged. 

Also, there aren't really any other active threads... The vinyl one fell on it's arse and I'm sick of the 60 MJ vs Prince threads....