The Rob Reviews Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience

Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience is easily the most hyped album of 2013 thus far.  It moved nearly one MILLION units last week when it hit stores.  But, is it any good?

In a word…  Sure.  Sure, it’s good.  I wouldn’t call it bad, nor would I call it great.  I can tell you that up until 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds I wasn’t a big Justin Timberlake fan.  When he teamed up with producing virtuoso Timbaland everything changed for me.  I liked everything on that album from a star I used to largely ignore.  I was thrilled to find out Timbo would be working on Justin’s latest outing, but the result didn’t live up to the standard FutureSex set.

The first single “Suit & Tie” with Jay-Z isn’t a bad track, but it’s no “SexyBack.”  And sadly, it’s one of the better songs on the disc.  That, second single “Mirrors,” and deeper cut “Let the Groove Get in” were the only tracks that had anything unique, all of the rest sounded the same to me.

I was concerned that the album would be brief, as it only has 10 songs, but every track comes in at 8 minutes.  It can be both a blessing and a curse, and it seems like every song is split into two and kind of remixes itself.  While having only ten songs, the album is full.

Rumor has it that later this year (I keep hearing November), Justin and Timbaland will release the “other half” of the 20/20 Experience, 10 more songs they’ve cooked up.  I hope it’s a bit more produced and inspired than the first half.  I don’t want to come off like I didn’t like the album, but I definitely expected more.