Justin Timberlake - Man Of The Woods (February 2, 2018) Album • Page 28

ha. i liked this video but i also looked at it from a "this is ridiculous" perspective.

the last minute where there are 4 justin's made me audibly laugh. also was into the choreography at the end

 

Seems the whole kids CD vibe I was talking about before is actually backed up.

 

I actually like the man of the woods video.....I think they're self aware of the style of the song and made a video that fit perfect to the vibe.

Although the song I rank really low on this album. Really curious as to why his team picked Filthy, MOTW and Supplies as first singles. Montana and Sauce are such friggin jams, they deserve to be on radio.

 

First listen random thoughts...

Higher Higher and Montana are the best of the ones that weren't released.

Already loved Say Something and it feels even better in the context of the album.

Didn't even get through half of Wave before skipping to the next song. Possibly the worst song he's ever released.

Overall, I thought it was good, but I can see this getting hammered by the mainstream music industry/fans. Compared to his other albums, this is probably the worst one, but it's still not "bad". Suffers from not having any hits as big as his previous works (there's no SexyBack or Take Back the Night). Kind of feels like a let down after how long we had to wait for this one. Hopefully he doesn't wait five more years before the next one.

 

Personally I think if you cut out Filthy, Waves, Flannel and Living Off the Land, you have a very cohesive and strong 12 track album.

 

This, big time - but I also think it kinda goes hand-in-hand with some of these songs being way too long for the amount of interesting things happening in each one.

I haven't had a chance to go back and listen to the whole thing again, but I have listened to many of the songs quite a few times now. I don't think I will ever enjoy this whole album, but I do have to say the highs are really damn high. I forsee myself copying Craig's idea and having a sweet 10-track version of this that I actualy return to a lot.

 

lol starting off like Chance?

 

Haven't listened yet, I'd rather wait until after work, but it is definitely ridiculous how narratives start for big artists these days and then everyone just runs with it. So many reviews are not trying to offer a unique perspective on an album, they just want to hop on whatever the bandwagon narrative is for the album. It's happening more and more.

The first paragraph of that Pitchfork review is one of the most ridiculously laughable things I've ever read. And like, of course Pharrell and Timbaland played a huge role in his success. What pop star doesn't have producers that play a big part in their success?

 

This version flows really well and was much more enjoyable for me than the full album, if anyone wants to try it out.

Filthy
Sauce
Man of the Woods
Higher Higher
Morning Light
Say Something
Hers/Flannel
Montana
Breeze off the Pond
The Hard Stuff
Young Man

I could be persuaded to keep "Midnight Summer Jam" and cut the title track, which just has awful lyrics, but I find the intro part of the former ("Act like the south ain't the shit") extremely grating. Don't miss "Wave," "Supplies," or "Livin' off the Land" at all.

 

"Filthy" in particular has grown on me a lot. I didn't like that song at all at first, but I kind of love it now.

 

Whats frustrating me is that for his past albums critics were always so quick to say his music appropriates black culture, and now those same critics are criticizing him on this album for ignoring the black culture that made him successful and embracing his whiteness.

And why does every review have to mention the Janet situation from 15 years ago? What does that have to do with this album?

 

The only thing I'll say on that, is the point they are trying to make is that he used black culture, and now he's tossing it aside in favor of the more "mature" woodsy style. I don't necessarily agree that that's what's going on here, but the points are related.

 

The front half of this is definitely the weakest part, I could happily lose Sauce, Man of the Woods and Wave, but once it hits Supplies I think it's pretty great.

 

JT has been a mega star since the 90s people love to hate on people who have had continuous success. Yeah this album isn't his best but he's said multiple times that this album is about his wife, son, and where he grew up. I don't think he needs to reinvent the pop music world anymore. Wave is the worst song of his career hands down though

 

Eveyrone who wanted a good country album should check out the H.C. McEntire that dropped today. Fantastic stuff!

 

Didn’t that come out last week? Either way, co-signed. Great record.

 

whoops!

 

This is an excellent piece about the critical response to this album and other recent big ticket pop releases:

Takedown Culture Has Come For Justin Timberlake, And It’s Becoming Exhausting

 

This is enjoyable. Nothing special or anything but it's not horrible

 

i do hate pans and think they're all extremely boring, but this is an unpopular opinion i think

 

I really like that and it explains exactly how I feel. It's not that I don't think any of these albums deserve criticism. Katy Perry and Arcade Fire, especially, both released their worst albums, but it's just the joy of taking them down that is clear in the writing which rubs me the wrong way.

 

Ignored all the criticism and didn't listen to the singles (besides Filthy) till my first listen, so I came in with no expectations.

Enjoying this so far. Seems silly the album got so much hate before it even came out-- most of it seems like vintage Timberlake. It's not as good as 20/20 Pt. 1 but, then again, that project was his opus.

 

I mean, I gave that Arcade Fire record a bad review too, but that's mostly because I thought it was half-baked and played against their strengths almost across the board. It wasn't like, "Yes! My opportunity to take Arcade Fire down a peg!" Swift released my least favorite album of hers, too, but there was still a lot about it that was worthwhile, and the complaints about her not sharing her political views wandered pretty far into "None of your damn business" territory.

I didn't see the Pitchfork piece yesterday about Timberlake's co-write with Toby Keith, but that makes it pretty clear that a "takedown" was the goal here. "We don't know the terms of this co-write, but how dare Timberlake work with an artist who has associated with Donald Trump?" As the piece said, there are so many actual transgressions happening in entertainment right now that calling out something like that just comes across as a cheap shot. Like, hey Pitchfork, you put a fucking R. Kelly song at number 19 on your Best Songs of the 2000s list; you've supported some shitty people too.

 

the new music video seems very self aware and poking fun at himself at the aesthetic, at least that's how it came off to me

 

Yeah my thoughts exactly.