Is there a more irritating geezer on Planet Pop than Justin Timberlake? Probably, but JT’ll do for the moment. This is the first album from the former ‘NSync frontman since his trillion-selling 2002 debut Justified, and back in the safe hands of hitmaker and producer Timbaland, he seems to be trying to come up with a latter day version of Marvin Gaye's ‘Let’s Get It On’. Only instead of recreating Gaye’s subtle mastery of sonic seduction, Timberlake goes straight for the main course. He should’ve called the album Cocksure.
Ladies everywhere should really beware when he pouts, “Daddy’s on a mission to please” on the opener ‘Futuresex/Lovesound’, which parallels Prince’s ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’. “I know a little lady from downtown that’ll do anything that I please,” he croons on ‘Sexy Ladies’, which cops the bass-line from Cameo’s ‘She’s Strange’, while on ‘Lovestoned’ he boasts that, “She’s got a little more ass…and she’s going home with me tonight.” On ‘Sexyback’, the flagship single, he makes the audacious claim that he’s, er, bringing sexy back, while at the same time dissing everyone else’s bedtime manner: “The other fuckers don’t know how to act.” Really? Is that what the ladies tell him? He’s a tad easier to take in slow-burning mode: the sultry ‘Until The End Of Time’ would make a fine Michael Jackson ballad, while ‘All Over Again’ isn’t half bad in a Stevie Wonder kind of way. But there’s only so much you can take of that squeaky voice and irritating rooster strut. “Can anybody out there hear me/Cos I can’t hear myself,” he pleads on ‘Losing My Way’. We should be so lucky!