When Justin Timberlake announced he was releasing a second part to his 20/20 Experience , we didn’t really know why, or what to expect. The 20/20 Experience Part 1 acts as a solid piece and a very nice return for the entertainer, who has been acting for the last six years. Now that The 20/20 Experience Part 2 is available for free via an iTunes stream, we no longer have to wonder why Timberlake decided to release a second album.
To every light side, there’s a dark side, and Justin Timberlake has brought us a pretty nasty dark side for The 20/20 Experience Part 2 . While The 20/20 Experience Part 1 was all about the drugged up feeling of being in love, The 20/20 Experience Part 2 has revealed itself to be the dirty love you wish you had forgotten.
Grittier in its overall sound, Timberlake abandons all that he was proving with his motown-inspired album. The 20/20 Experience Part 2 reaches new highs and takes the listener on a sonic experience that they have never heard before from the consummate performer. Being truly experimental on each track, each song sounds different from the next, yet all of it is cohesive package. The only thing that this second part resembles of Timberlake’s first 20/20 is that the songs are rather lengthy, and tend to meander a bit.
On most songs, the second half is where Timberlake picks up speed and sonically blows all of our eardrums. In songs like “True Blood” and “Gimme What I Don’t Know (I Want)” the listener is brought to a new world with boombastic beats, and catchy pulses from Timberlake and Timbaland. In a lot of ways it seems like the two are just jiving in the studio, and the listener is spying in on a lengthy session.
Stand out tracks aside from “True Blood” is a gospel funk themed “Drink You Away.” On this album, unlike his part 1, Timberlake really flexes his vocals, and isn’t afraid to play around with them. The “SexyBack” singer shows off for his listener that he’s been working heavily on his vocals on tracks like “Only When I Walk Away” “Wings” and “You Got It On.”
Elements of all of these songs can be heard in Timberlake’s musical influences, such as Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson.
The 20/20 Experience Part 2 comes out on September 29. To hear Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience Part 2 click here.
