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JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - FUTURESEX - LOVESOUNDS (2LP)

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE/FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS (2LP)

One spin of FutureSex/LoveSounds and it's hard to believe that Justin Timberlake was ever a boy-band barnstormer--no modern-day male artist beats him when it comes to single-minded self assurance or suavity. 'SexyBack,' the inescapable summer sizzler of a first single off this short and thrillingly unwholesome disc, makes that clear on its own: If there was ever any question about whether sexy was in need of reviving--a doubtful proposition at best, given the sheer volume of JT's gyrating counterparts--he lays it to rest instantly over a small but insistent Timbaland-concocted beat. On that track, Timberlake's appeal is his sweet but newly thuggish-sounding voice--here's a good kid gone bad, and he's determined to convince us of it not only by tossing a few well-timed mother****ers our way but also with such lyrics as 'I'll let you whip me if I misbehave.' The rest of FutureSex will feel familiar to anyone who picked up 2002's brilliantly funk-flecked Justified: 'Love Stoned/I Think She Knows Me,' shifts from Michael Jackson-esque paranoid trilling to pulsating guitar rock; 'Chop Me Up,' a collaboration with Three 6 Mafia and Timbaland, gives up the grit rap-style but still manages to recall both Prince and Stevie Wonder; 'My Love,' with T.I., mines classic Timberlake territory with meltaway lyrics like 'I can see us holding hands walking on the beach/Our clothes in the sand'; and the straight-up but groovy lament 'Losing My Way' asks, searchingly, what may be the silliest question a squeal-inducing pop star has ever posed: 'Can anybody out there feel me?' Rest assured, JT: we feel every past-, present-, and future-sexy verse.

1. FutureSex/LoveSound 
2. Sexyback - Timbaland, Justin Timberlake 
3. Sexy Ladies 
4. My Love - T.I., Justin Timberlake 
5. Love Stoned 
6. What Goes Around... 
7. Chop Me Up - Three 6 Mafia, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake 
8. Damn Girl - Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, 
9. Summer Love 
10. Until the End of Time 
11. Losing My Way 
12. (Another Song) All Over Again