February 2018 - Music
Album of the Month - Man of the Woods by Justin Timberlake
On his fifth album, Justin Timberlake is back with Man of the Woods which also comes with the moonshine-and-mason-jar glisten of country, blues and folk. You might expect a smooth guy like JT to use this backdrop for a pickup-truck cruise across the Florida-Georgia line. Man of the Woods takes a while to settle into a rural core. Most of the album's first half is cosmopolitan future-funk of the highest calibre. It's hard to call opening track "Filthy" "pop" since the production is so avant-garde. The fact that the two musical elements don't exactly match groove wise creates a beautiful and disorienting tension unlike anything on the radio. "Midnight Summer Jam" is like an update of Earth, Wind and Fire's "Shining Star" where the hooks are more wine-splashed than sugar-coated. "Sauce" sounds like Primus doing War's "Slippin' Into Darkness" – the Chili Peppers need to cover it on their next tour. To Timberlake, "rustic" means "survivalist," as opposed to "downhome," and he sounds like he has the warmest, coziest doomsday bunker on the prairie. "Some shit's 'bout to go down, I'll be the one with the level head," he croons in "Supplies," a song where he compares his love to light, firewood and emergency generators. "The world could end now, baby, we'll be living in The Walking Dead."
Still, parts of Man of the Woods are his most exploratory music in years, whether it's the skippy, juddering avant-funk or making meaningful modern countrypolitan without sounding like a disco ball in a Solo cup. It's not perfect, but you can't raise a barn without getting your hands dirty. My rating 8/10.
On his fifth album, Justin Timberlake is back with Man of the Woods which also comes with the moonshine-and-mason-jar glisten of country, blues and folk. You might expect a smooth guy like JT to use this backdrop for a pickup-truck cruise across the Florida-Georgia line. Man of the Woods takes a while to settle into a rural core. Most of the album's first half is cosmopolitan future-funk of the highest calibre. It's hard to call opening track "Filthy" "pop" since the production is so avant-garde. The fact that the two musical elements don't exactly match groove wise creates a beautiful and disorienting tension unlike anything on the radio. "Midnight Summer Jam" is like an update of Earth, Wind and Fire's "Shining Star" where the hooks are more wine-splashed than sugar-coated. "Sauce" sounds like Primus doing War's "Slippin' Into Darkness" – the Chili Peppers need to cover it on their next tour. To Timberlake, "rustic" means "survivalist," as opposed to "downhome," and he sounds like he has the warmest, coziest doomsday bunker on the prairie. "Some shit's 'bout to go down, I'll be the one with the level head," he croons in "Supplies," a song where he compares his love to light, firewood and emergency generators. "The world could end now, baby, we'll be living in The Walking Dead."
Still, parts of Man of the Woods are his most exploratory music in years, whether it's the skippy, juddering avant-funk or making meaningful modern countrypolitan without sounding like a disco ball in a Solo cup. It's not perfect, but you can't raise a barn without getting your hands dirty. My rating 8/10.
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