Timberlake in the style of Michael Jackson: the public reproached the artist for being soulless

43-year-old pop star(ic) Justin Timberlake has released a new solo album, Everything I Thought It Was, his first album in six years, and in it he pretends that, despite all this unforgivable abyss of time away from the chart races, he still retains his cheerful dancehall. form and you can even bet on it in the bookmaker’s windows of the capricious love of the public. The local press, of course, has already tried to destroy the artist and his creation, calling him “typical,” “stale,” and “soulless.” But fans vote with clicks, and the album strives to take leading positions in various online stores.

After the first listen, the disc leaves the following aftertaste: it is clearly nostalgic, sometimes sad, more often openly vulgar, and if you can dance to it, it’s mostly leisurely couple dances with a picky partner or a stupid partner.

The “rubber” release of 18 songs begins with the saddest one – Memphis (Timberlake’s small homeland), full of sad memories of how he strived for fame in his youth. A terrible confession about the soulless “them” who pushed him to the top of the pop world, saying that he would represent his city, his state there and they would all be proud of him, so he must play his role and not show heartache, because for this he They will give you a lot of money and all kinds of expensive things. And then he saw his soul in the Mississippi River and suddenly realized something important about himself. Just like Narcissus in the ancient myth, he also saw himself in the reflection of the river, but could not tear himself away.

After listening to this heartbreaking beginning of the disc, Justin feels sorry to the point of tears, but only until the moment you understand that he, of course, was pushed, but he, the unfortunate one, pushed with all his might and strived for success. It would seem that the guy is in an existential crisis and now even more soul-wrenching revelations will begin, but no, it was just an enticing deception. Then only the dancing will begin. And as indecent as possible.

Children’s tears from the first track are replaced by howls of passion coming from the depths of the dance floor, where the public intercourse of two bodies in love takes place. That is, a sex party, something that in our country is now subject to massive police raids and total ostracism of clampers and moralizers. Pure debauchery in the spirit of the hooligan group “Malchishnik” from the early post-Soviet 90s. Timberlake either whispers, or recites, or groans in detail about how and what is going on with the girl in the song Fuckin’ Up the Disco – one of three tracks co-produced by Calvin Harris. American critics sarcastically hint that the track looks like a smoothed-out version of Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall, and it’s hard to disagree with the critics. But in terms of emotionality and the true spirit of freedom, Timberlake is far from Jackson.

“No Angels,” another club-dance track co-produced by Harris, once again proves that while on maternity leave with two children in recent years, Timberlake hasn’t lost his youthful ability to make dirty jokes. The video for this composition is a real cinematic horror film, in which the artist first innocently seduces a girl at a disco, and then it turns out that she is a bloodthirsty demon, and he is also a monster who killed the real Justin and took his place. Again, fans quite predictably found the video similar to the cult clip of the same Michael Jackson Thriller. In general, everyone understood who the pop artist strives to be like. Timberlake has never hidden the fact that he is a fan of Michael Jackson (like Kirkorov is of Alla Pugacheva) and has tried to adopt his tricks all his life. It’s not just that Justin’s first album consisted entirely of material that Michael Jackson refused. Here, of course, he even surpassed Kirkorov. By the way, Timberlake came to the album presentation party wearing rose-colored glasses, imitating his other idol, Elton John. The only thing missing was the famous “pink blouse” who would have asked him why there were so many remakes in his work…

These are not all the striking quotes and borrowings from the greats that can be found on this album. The track Play seems at least half identical in sound to David Bowie’s old hit Fame, only instead of the word “fame” Justin shamelessly meows the single-syllable word “play”.

A spectacular incursion into the territory of Afrobeats was the track Liar, performed together with the Nigerian artist Fireboy DML. The combination of rock and gospel sounds quite fresh and unexpected for Justin in the song Sanctified, which was recorded together with the young soul star Toby Nwigwe. Compared to the rest of the lubricated dance, the composition sounds like a fascinating multi-level art with a wide range of sound meanings. And this, of course, is not the work of Justin, but of his guest Toby. After all, most of the album is vintage or at least typical Justin Timberlake with peppery, vulgar disco-funk jokes.

The basis of each of Timberlake’s albums, starting with his solo Justified in 2002, was his musical friendship with Timbaland (co-author, by the way, of Bilan’s victorious Believe at Eurovision 2008). This disc captures all the sonic essence in the songs Infinity Sex and Technicolor, produced by this stellar producer and composer.

In general, the release turned out to be global, but it turned out to be devoid of a stylistic core, it sounds too long (77 minutes) and falls apart compositionally. Despite the fact that the album ends with a looping replica to the first song – the track Conditions, in which the hero asks to love him without any conditions, despite all his sins, even if he becomes a nobody, disappears and loses everything he has acquired through backbreaking labor. It all looks as if Justin opened a closet with clothes, and all the contents fell out, crumpled and dumped in a heap – it’s impossible to make out what, where, for what, and from what time.

An unexpected and sweet throwback to the past, however, was the track Paradise, in which Timberlake reunited with his fellow boys band NSYNC. In the late 90s they rocketed to the top of the charts. Compared to all the solo narcissistic attempts, this choral track sounds so warm and touching that the artist’s real problem becomes obvious – the lack of spiritual vulnerability and warmth, which would be very useful now.

Looking back, the public remembers how ugly Timberlake behaved in the scandal with Janet Jackson, when he exposed her breasts right on stage between halftime of the 2004 American Super Bowl – in short, he threw a naked party for the whole world. The press then made Janet a scapegoat, and Justin got away with a short pause in his career – well, almost everything like with Kirkorov! They also remember how he unchivalrously slipped out of his relationship with Britney Spears, leaving her to suffer in depression. At a recent concert in New York, Timberlake told the audience before performing Cry Me A River, the 2002 hit that was ostensibly dedicated to Spears, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to no one, damn it.” This trick significantly lowered Timberlake’s ratings in the eyes of the overseas public.

The album Everything I Thought It Was demonstrates that the artist still has a voice and a sense of rhythm, but this is not enough to cajole the vindictive public and recycle in their eyes all the past sins of the cold-blooded womanizer. According to industry professionals, it is mental deficiency that prevents Timberlake’s career from truly blossoming.