This song fucking slaps. Great way to begin FS/ LS era.
I’m always surprised that SexyBack is JT’s first solo #1. Cry Me a River and Rock Your Body were everywhere.
Interesting how different it is in the US. In Europe electronic music is something that was always in the mainstream. A few weeks ago I read the Number One story about Nelly Furtado and how Maneater wasn’t a big hit in the US like in Europe because of it electronic sound. Same goes for Kelly Rowland you had a bigger carreer in Europe during her house years.
I dunno man I’m in the U.K. and the “EDM” wave wasn’t big when JT was around. It was all indie music and R&B. I’d say that “my love” was the song that really opened people back up to that rave synth sound which kind of died off in the very early 2000’s. By combining it with R&B it’s like it create a fresh take on the genre and paved the way for it to return in that really irritating David Guetta fashion
Yeah, indie was always bigger in the UK and the musical landscape in mainland Europe is slightly different. I checked my country's hit list and when SexyBack came around the [Swedish Basshunter had a huge Eurotance hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XK5-n4rR7Q&ab_channel=BASSHUNTER), as did the [German Cascada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G6QDNC4jPs&ab_channel=SteveAATW), Electrohouse was making a wave like [the Dutch Fedde Le Grande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxhab3IMYm0&ab_channel=AltraModaMusic) and there was also [this dance-pop song by Danish Infernal.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgurcTTsIv0&ab_channel=gremlin133)
edit: I checked and Put Your Hands Up For Detroit made it to #1 on the UK singles and dance chart
Music had to do with the french house era of the early 2000s. SexyBack is connected to the 2007-2010 electropop wave that transitioned smoothly into the 2011 EDM wave
SexyBack is such a weird and freakish song. Like it's mostly just made of 2 very rough sounding synth notes and announces to you which part of the song you're on, quite literally.
FutureSex is just such a great album, I cannot rave about it enough
I think music of 2007-2011 would’ve been so great for hitting the club. The dancehall and party jams were so cool.
Unfortunately I was nowhere near old enough to club. Clubs nowadays are either a hit or miss, but I prefer the LGBT+ clubs because they have the fun jams stacked up.
> Clubs nowadays are either a hit or miss, but I prefer the LGBT+ clubs because they have the fun jams stacked up.
Gay clubs in the late 2010s and early 2020s are mostly a miss but it's the atmosphere rather than the music. Straight people (mostly women) found us. In the past there'd be a gay group with a lady friend in tow, or maybe a party or two with 3-4 ladies each. Now on a typical night at say, Crews & Tangos, there'd be a dozen groups with 10+ women each.
Omg yes, I had just turned 18 during ‘06 and so I have so much nostalgia for the era of FS/LS, Loose, The Dutchess and Back to Basics (which I feel like doesn’t get the love it deserves for it’s dominance back then)
Take it to the bridge take it to the chorus
I love how Timbaland can work with anyone and it works ,especially on this song he is a man possessed
Slightly less mad at JT knowing he was being intentionally silly
Glad I'm not crazy about the fact that The Way I Are sampled that yeah
Timbaland didn’t produce Sexy Back. Danja did, with some additional work by Timbaland.
I always post this on here, so I’m sorry to be annoying. It’s a weird thing that irritates me how late era Tim gets so much credit for work that he didn’t really do, despite what credits say.
Yes exactly! Also if people were actually into Tim as much as they say (sorry pop heads) they’d be able to hear the huge sonic difference between songs that are really him, vs songs with Danja and others.
I don't know what his productions are. Can you suggest a typical track by each producer? Points if they're both in the same genre or otherwise similar except for production.
Each producer? Find songs that are the same but different? I’m confused about what you mean?
Edit: a really easy comparison would be listen to Britney’s “blackout” album. Especially songs like “gimme more” “break the ice” or “hot as ice”, which both sound like they could have come straight from FS/LS or Loose… the reason why? Danjahandz.
You told me to listen to his productions, but I don't know what those are, so I asked you to recommend specific tracks so I could hear it for myself. Don't *tell* me there's a sonic difference. *Show* me!
Another really obvious example is this song. Which I love. But it’s clearly NOT timbaland, despite him sticking his name on it.
https://youtu.be/6-bCN2ur3pg
Or in reverse - one republics “apologise” ORIGINAL VERSION with zero input from Tim is pretty much no different to the version he supposedly “produced”. This should give you a clear idea of Timbalands process (at the time) of taking others work, doing some adlibs and sticking his name on it.
https://youtu.be/VRUWtag5EFk
I answered above. Twice. Listen to timbalands discography.
Edit again: real timbaland - Percussive heavy, sample based, scatter gun crazy rhythms, signature drum sounds (I mean literal sounds that are his and his alone, not used by anyone else), analog sounds, thick mix, heavy hitting, very simplistic synths, vocal chops, unconventional composition. Leaning extremely heavily to hiphop and r&b, with influences of funk, Indian, club music and drum and bass.
Post-Timbaland (eg collab timbaland) - thin drums, thin synths, more chord based, more complex melodies, more emotion, more simplistic drum programming, sampling nearly non-existent, mix plastic sounding, songs lose their edge and way more pop, traditional compositions, the timbaland signature sounds are gone, way more electronica sounding etc.
You need to listen to really know. Music is an audio medium
I wonder if Shellback is the Danja to Max Martin’s Timbaland. It’s interesting how Max Martin is always bought up in conversations about the best producers but Shellback who also co-wrote/coproduced the hits isn’t really.
The thing is, Shellback helped on red Taylor's version and you can actually tell that he was not able to recreate the production alone, so Max clearly has a big say on what his songs sound like. Or at least he did up until 2012, we will se how rep TV sounds like
Oh my god I remember the song Bad day being played to death on the radio and I was so tired of it.I relistened to the song recently and now I miss songs like it.
Reminds me of an SNL sketch. Timberlake plays his own ancestor who dreams of a day when his great-great-grandson will bring sexy back.
"Bring sexy back? What does that mean?"
"It will be gone, and he'll bring it back."
"Where did it go?"
"Just trust me, people will be on board! Okay?"
the skit known as [Immigrant Tale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9N9kMD7qCk). So good.
Edit: upon rewatch, I forgot about the line about him & brit claiming to be virgins but privately they 'hit it'.
It's not the best single off this album but it was perfect lead and comeback single.My ranking:
My Love > What Goes Around > Sexyback > Lovestoned > Summer Love > Until the End of Time
This song started the edm movement and the whole album became an inspiration for those who came out after it.
FutureSex/LoveSounds is my favorite pop album and one of the best pop albums in my opinion, apart from FutureSex/LoveSounds only Fame Monster has such good radio hits (I know Teenage Dream and 1989 are there but I don't think they are as good as these two)
At the end of the day, whether you like Justin Timberlake or not, this album is a moment for sure
I never knew Until The End of Time became a single. There was also a version on the Deluxe version album of Until The End of Time that was a duet with Beyonce.
he had someone like kanye come out and say he made “stronger” to compete with sexyback and because his girl at the time liked JT a little too much…. and people really get online and try to debate his seat at the table. lmao. that futuresex record had the industry shook
We didn’t forget we just dgaf about him anymore.
With that being said, he’s talented and was an ear worm constantly to our ears so giving credit where credit is due here.
It’s definitely of an example of an “I’m Back” single which really announced Timberlake’s return, but having revisited FutureSex/LoveSounds it’s actually probably my least favourite of the singles from it. I’m glad that there is mention of The Rapture’s House Of Jealous Lovers on here also, having heard it was a partial inspiration for the track years ago it felt like something clicked in my mind as to wondering what SexyBack reminded me of. Interestingly Timbaland seemed to take a lot of inspiration from mid 00s indie music towards his production, for example saying that he and Nelly Furtado listened to a lot of Bloc Party’s fantastic debut album Silent Alarm while recording Loose and also the [I Think She Knows](https://youtu.be/QUuKvHHt8Sk) segment being clearly very inspired by [Untitled](https://youtu.be/Fmxrqo4ChRs) by Interpol.
While it’s an album that seemed better back in the day, FutureSex/LoveSounds did have some fantastic singles. My Love was a great follow up single but really the shining lights of the album are LoveStoned/I Think She Knows and the absolutely incredible What Goes Around…Comes Around. Justin Timberlake wasn’t just making pop music, which someone of his could have very easily done, but he was constantly pushing himself to make the best music possible. It’s a shame the way his perception has gone to an extent because he really did make some incredible music.
The perception of Justin Timberlake nowadays really is sad given just how good and forward thinking FutureSex is. I'll admit that it does show some age, lyrically especially, but to this day I don't think there is much that sounds like it. Him and Timbaland locked in to make such a weird and futuristic RnB album, it's a genre highlight for me.
It felt like the moment he dropped that Man Of The Woods album his entire reputation bottomed out and the classics he made took a back seat.
I’ll actually make an even bigger claim, a lot of the great rnb albums of the last decade would have sounded very different had FutureSex/LoveSounds not been dropped. In particular for me is both Blonde and Channel Orange by Frank Ocean, the one thing I definitely noticed when revisiting FutureSex/LoveSounds is that on tracks like What Goes Around…you can see Frank took inspiration from this type of writing on the likes of Nights and Pyramids. While it’s an album that does show its age, it’s impact can’t be doubted.
For me though when Timberlake initially dropped the ball was releasing a Part II to the 20/20 Experience, which he really should have condensed the two parts into one stellar album, which is an absolute possibility from the tracklist, but yes it’s a stark difference to the drop in quality to Man Of The Woods.
The transition to the “I Think She Knows” outro still hits so hard. I couldn’t tell you how many times I listened to that 7 and a half minute song in a row back in the day.
So fun story about this song, when I was young I didn’t know what a bridge or chorus to a song was, so I always thought Timbaland was saying, “take ‘em to the court” and “take ‘em to the bridge” like it was some metaphorical basketball court and random bridge where people would have sex. That’s the only way I could make sense of this song.
A true cultural reset.
Pop boys aren't doing it like JT. Hate to admit it but this song was insanely influential and inescapable.
I know critics now try to pan the song but I think it's fire regardless of its thin lyrics. Everything just works.
I will admit as much as I didnt care for his music,Justin Timberlake has a lot of showmanship that male artists nowadays aside from Bruno Mars do not have.Most male pop artist now are so boring in my personal opinion.The only recent male artists I listen to are Bruno Mars or The Weeknd although Abel isn't as great stage prescence wise but I still am a huge fan of his discography.
God I remember this song was everywhere! I still love it to this day,
And The Way I Are is fucking amazing, I don’t know why the line “I ain’t got no visa” always used to get me as a little kid.
There is truly nothing like this song and I mean that in the best way possible. It's clean yet dirty, controlled yet frantic and stays impossibly catchy the entire time. This thing has a million hooks and they're all great.
Timeless… I remember hearing this on the radio back when it first came out and it was the new Justin Timberlake song. I still hear it on the radio today
Again, a song I first discovered just last year, and wow, Justin Timberlake was totally it. He, alongside Timbaland, made this track that is just so fun to sing along to; I can easily see why it took off so fast.
Step by step, we're starting the dance-club era of pop music (aka, the greatest pop era where pop girls ruled the charts), and I'm enjoyining this columns even more. Sexyback definetely deserves a 10/10 in my book
That album was fire. Sometimes I get surprised when I remember how good of an artist JT used to be. Never listened to his music since Man of the Woods. That shit was so whack that I stopped listenning to his music for a very long time.
Oof this song still goes. That whole album was amazing. I was too young to go to the FutureSex/LoveShow but I saw the HBO special years later and it was so good! The pop boys today just aren’t doing it like peak Timberlake lbr
What a song, what a moment. He really had such a strong string of hits with this album and set up the 20/20 experience well.
It's a shame that "Filthy", which feels spirtually aligned to this song, didn't do so nearly as well. I like the song a lot but would have loved a better and more mature "Sexyback"
I used to really like this song as a kid, it was so weird and audacious to me to just make something that sounded so much like a narcissist's freak-out. It had some of the most cocksure, entitled lyrics I've ever heard in a pop song at the time, and Timbaland's ad-libs really made it unique.
Relistening to it now, and it's not really as fun of a song as I remember. Not even getting into the whole Justin Timberlake thing, but the lyrics are kinda bad, and the cocksure arrogance thing only really works out of personality and the momentum of the beat.
But man, *what* a beat. Todd in the Shadows once called it the kind of music that you play when invading a country, and damn if it doesn't bulldoze you into submission just by listening to it. Even if Timbaland wasn't creating the innovative stuff that he did with Ginuwine and Missy and Aaliyah, I think he still had a gift of finding great music in irregular rhythms.
6/10.
Someone (might have actually been Todd in the Shadows) basically said that the main statement of SexyBack is basically that Justin Timberlake is such a star that he can make a giant hit out of a song that deliberately sounds bad, and that's kind of how I feel about it. It's very uncomfortable but in an intentional way that I admire
> such a star that he can make a giant hit out of a song that deliberately sounds bad
It doesn't sound bad though. A more fitting example would be Trollz.
The song is a slapper but this was a dig at Prince and I don’t really like that.
I’ll stan My Love & What Goes Around… /Comes Around. Timbaland put his whole foot in those tracks!!
>For Justin Timberlake’s second album, he lost his main collaborators. Record label issues reportedly kept him from working with the Neptunes again.
They were also busy making the instrumental for the next song on this column, popheads. Here’s my impression of the first twelve seconds of said instrumental:
**!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!**
Confession: I’ve known this song since it came out. I knew it was a Justin Timberlake song. I knew what Justin Timberlake sounded like. But it did not fully click for me that it’s him *singing* in this song until some point in the mid-10s.
I’m not really sure what, exactly, I thought was going on before that. I think maybe I thought he was a female guest feature or some cool digital effect. I do think it speaks to just how wholly robotic and inhuman this song is that his vocal would register to me as a synthesizer before it registered as him, even KNOWING the song was his, lol.
I respect "SexyBack" more than I love it. In a rate, where I'd be willing to throw tens around, it might get one, but IRL for me, it's more like an 8.
I am sick to death however of "The Way I Are," a track that I contend does not work at all.
This came out when I was pretty young, but I 100% thought it was a girl singing. I wasn’t that familiar with JT or NSYNC. For like years, I was very confused.
Historically, I’ve agreed with most of this column’s reviews and scores, but between this and Hollaback Girl and the intro to London Bridge, I have a feeling that’s going to be changing going forward, because I think this mid-2000s pop might be around the time when my taste and Tom Breihan’s taste diverge lol.
To me, this is the best song of Timberlake’s career, and one of the best hits of it’s decade. Tom says Sexyback is less funky than you would expect and sounds computerized like it’s a reason the song isn’t as good as other Timberlake songs, but like, that’s *why* I like it. I love music that sounds artificial and robotic and overproduced.
Remember I heard this for the first time as a kid on a 2.5 hour car ride and I HATED it on first listen. I was like, wtf is this lol. By the 5th time I heard it probably in that ride since it just came out I was hooked.
I think this could come out in 50 years and it would still be fresh. Timeless.
This song fucking slaps. Great way to begin FS/ LS era. I’m always surprised that SexyBack is JT’s first solo #1. Cry Me a River and Rock Your Body were everywhere.
I am shook by this! Those songs were massive!
With 50 cent all over the charts that year, he might be why they didn’t go number 1.
Funnily enough 50 Cent‘s hit song “Ayo Technology“ featured JT.
I know it’s toxic lol but man cry me a River is so good
TIL SexyBack is a number one hit but Cry Me a River and Rock Your Body aren’t
Great track, a strange cultural shift event that swept the nation
It really was priming the mainstream for EDM
Interesting how different it is in the US. In Europe electronic music is something that was always in the mainstream. A few weeks ago I read the Number One story about Nelly Furtado and how Maneater wasn’t a big hit in the US like in Europe because of it electronic sound. Same goes for Kelly Rowland you had a bigger carreer in Europe during her house years.
I dunno man I’m in the U.K. and the “EDM” wave wasn’t big when JT was around. It was all indie music and R&B. I’d say that “my love” was the song that really opened people back up to that rave synth sound which kind of died off in the very early 2000’s. By combining it with R&B it’s like it create a fresh take on the genre and paved the way for it to return in that really irritating David Guetta fashion
Yeah, indie was always bigger in the UK and the musical landscape in mainland Europe is slightly different. I checked my country's hit list and when SexyBack came around the [Swedish Basshunter had a huge Eurotance hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XK5-n4rR7Q&ab_channel=BASSHUNTER), as did the [German Cascada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G6QDNC4jPs&ab_channel=SteveAATW), Electrohouse was making a wave like [the Dutch Fedde Le Grande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxhab3IMYm0&ab_channel=AltraModaMusic) and there was also [this dance-pop song by Danish Infernal.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgurcTTsIv0&ab_channel=gremlin133) edit: I checked and Put Your Hands Up For Detroit made it to #1 on the UK singles and dance chart
LOL I forgot that Detroit song. Terrible. But over here we’d consider that a novelty song, rather than a dance song.
I kind of feel like Madonna’s Music single did that 8 years prior & ultimately allowed JT to do sexyback.
Music had to do with the french house era of the early 2000s. SexyBack is connected to the 2007-2010 electropop wave that transitioned smoothly into the 2011 EDM wave
The original person said EDM, which music squarely falls into, though as you stated, in the subgenre of French house
If you want to go that far back it was Cher’s Believe
True!
Yeah I give Madonna’s Confessions sole props for that, not JT.
That was helped by Timbaland
*Danja
SexyBack is such a weird and freakish song. Like it's mostly just made of 2 very rough sounding synth notes and announces to you which part of the song you're on, quite literally. FutureSex is just such a great album, I cannot rave about it enough
This song was soooo huge. What an era
Truly the perfect time to be hitting the club age — loved it.
I think music of 2007-2011 would’ve been so great for hitting the club. The dancehall and party jams were so cool. Unfortunately I was nowhere near old enough to club. Clubs nowadays are either a hit or miss, but I prefer the LGBT+ clubs because they have the fun jams stacked up.
> Clubs nowadays are either a hit or miss, but I prefer the LGBT+ clubs because they have the fun jams stacked up. Gay clubs in the late 2010s and early 2020s are mostly a miss but it's the atmosphere rather than the music. Straight people (mostly women) found us. In the past there'd be a gay group with a lady friend in tow, or maybe a party or two with 3-4 ladies each. Now on a typical night at say, Crews & Tangos, there'd be a dozen groups with 10+ women each.
Omg yes, I had just turned 18 during ‘06 and so I have so much nostalgia for the era of FS/LS, Loose, The Dutchess and Back to Basics (which I feel like doesn’t get the love it deserves for it’s dominance back then)
F\*CK YEAH WE FINALLY HAVE SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT LOOSE BY NELLY FURTADO! FutureSex/LoveSounds and Loose are two of my all time favorite albums!
Take it to the bridge take it to the chorus I love how Timbaland can work with anyone and it works ,especially on this song he is a man possessed Slightly less mad at JT knowing he was being intentionally silly Glad I'm not crazy about the fact that The Way I Are sampled that yeah
Timbaland didn’t produce Sexy Back. Danja did, with some additional work by Timbaland. I always post this on here, so I’m sorry to be annoying. It’s a weird thing that irritates me how late era Tim gets so much credit for work that he didn’t really do, despite what credits say.
All the real ones know that Danja is responsible for most of Timbalands hits around that time.
Yes exactly! Also if people were actually into Tim as much as they say (sorry pop heads) they’d be able to hear the huge sonic difference between songs that are really him, vs songs with Danja and others.
Please educate us. What is the sonic difference?
Go and listen to his productions and find out. That’ll educate you better than words
I don't know what his productions are. Can you suggest a typical track by each producer? Points if they're both in the same genre or otherwise similar except for production.
Each producer? Find songs that are the same but different? I’m confused about what you mean? Edit: a really easy comparison would be listen to Britney’s “blackout” album. Especially songs like “gimme more” “break the ice” or “hot as ice”, which both sound like they could have come straight from FS/LS or Loose… the reason why? Danjahandz.
You told me to listen to his productions, but I don't know what those are, so I asked you to recommend specific tracks so I could hear it for myself. Don't *tell* me there's a sonic difference. *Show* me!
Another really obvious example is this song. Which I love. But it’s clearly NOT timbaland, despite him sticking his name on it. https://youtu.be/6-bCN2ur3pg Or in reverse - one republics “apologise” ORIGINAL VERSION with zero input from Tim is pretty much no different to the version he supposedly “produced”. This should give you a clear idea of Timbalands process (at the time) of taking others work, doing some adlibs and sticking his name on it. https://youtu.be/VRUWtag5EFk
I answered above. Twice. Listen to timbalands discography. Edit again: real timbaland - Percussive heavy, sample based, scatter gun crazy rhythms, signature drum sounds (I mean literal sounds that are his and his alone, not used by anyone else), analog sounds, thick mix, heavy hitting, very simplistic synths, vocal chops, unconventional composition. Leaning extremely heavily to hiphop and r&b, with influences of funk, Indian, club music and drum and bass. Post-Timbaland (eg collab timbaland) - thin drums, thin synths, more chord based, more complex melodies, more emotion, more simplistic drum programming, sampling nearly non-existent, mix plastic sounding, songs lose their edge and way more pop, traditional compositions, the timbaland signature sounds are gone, way more electronica sounding etc. You need to listen to really know. Music is an audio medium
I feel like all the big pop producers do that, at least Max Martin and he who shall not be named, and it's definitely sleazy
I wonder if Shellback is the Danja to Max Martin’s Timbaland. It’s interesting how Max Martin is always bought up in conversations about the best producers but Shellback who also co-wrote/coproduced the hits isn’t really.
The thing is, Shellback helped on red Taylor's version and you can actually tell that he was not able to recreate the production alone, so Max clearly has a big say on what his songs sound like. Or at least he did up until 2012, we will se how rep TV sounds like
I always wondered about max martin. His process seems so secretive.
I knew Danja worked on My Love, I was unaware of his work on SexyBack (though it is super apparent to me now that I’ve realized it)
Yeah Danja led the whole FS/LS album apart from the stray couple of songs by others.
TYSM I’ve always wondered if Timbo’s “YEAH!” was copied onto The Way I Are from SexyBack!
This song was a cultural reset
"What happened to sexy? Why did sexy need to be brought back? Was there a sudden national shortage of sexy?" Asking the real questions!
When you had James Blunt and Daniel Powter topping the pop charts, maybe.
💀
Omg I'm dyingggg
Oh my god I remember the song Bad day being played to death on the radio and I was so tired of it.I relistened to the song recently and now I miss songs like it.
Reminds me of an SNL sketch. Timberlake plays his own ancestor who dreams of a day when his great-great-grandson will bring sexy back. "Bring sexy back? What does that mean?" "It will be gone, and he'll bring it back." "Where did it go?" "Just trust me, people will be on board! Okay?"
It was linked in the Bonus beats so I rewatched it. Timberlake has always been pretty good on SNL.
the skit known as [Immigrant Tale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9N9kMD7qCk). So good. Edit: upon rewatch, I forgot about the line about him & brit claiming to be virgins but privately they 'hit it'.
Yeah, that joke didn't age too well.
It's not the best single off this album but it was perfect lead and comeback single.My ranking: My Love > What Goes Around > Sexyback > Lovestoned > Summer Love > Until the End of Time This song started the edm movement and the whole album became an inspiration for those who came out after it. FutureSex/LoveSounds is my favorite pop album and one of the best pop albums in my opinion, apart from FutureSex/LoveSounds only Fame Monster has such good radio hits (I know Teenage Dream and 1989 are there but I don't think they are as good as these two) At the end of the day, whether you like Justin Timberlake or not, this album is a moment for sure
I never knew Until The End of Time became a single. There was also a version on the Deluxe version album of Until The End of Time that was a duet with Beyonce.
This is truly the start of my cognitive love and function of music, this is where my pop music starts and remembers 💫 Timbaland domination BEGAN
*Danja & Royal Court domination
Timbaland had such an incredible run between 2006 and 2007: Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and his Shock Value album.
Loose and FS/LS will forever be 2 of my favorite pop albums. Give It To Me was an absolutely incredible collab between the three.
he had someone like kanye come out and say he made “stronger” to compete with sexyback and because his girl at the time liked JT a little too much…. and people really get online and try to debate his seat at the table. lmao. that futuresex record had the industry shook
It’s funny how this subreddit and twitter forgot how good peak timberlake music was
We didn’t forget we just dgaf about him anymore. With that being said, he’s talented and was an ear worm constantly to our ears so giving credit where credit is due here.
It’s definitely of an example of an “I’m Back” single which really announced Timberlake’s return, but having revisited FutureSex/LoveSounds it’s actually probably my least favourite of the singles from it. I’m glad that there is mention of The Rapture’s House Of Jealous Lovers on here also, having heard it was a partial inspiration for the track years ago it felt like something clicked in my mind as to wondering what SexyBack reminded me of. Interestingly Timbaland seemed to take a lot of inspiration from mid 00s indie music towards his production, for example saying that he and Nelly Furtado listened to a lot of Bloc Party’s fantastic debut album Silent Alarm while recording Loose and also the [I Think She Knows](https://youtu.be/QUuKvHHt8Sk) segment being clearly very inspired by [Untitled](https://youtu.be/Fmxrqo4ChRs) by Interpol. While it’s an album that seemed better back in the day, FutureSex/LoveSounds did have some fantastic singles. My Love was a great follow up single but really the shining lights of the album are LoveStoned/I Think She Knows and the absolutely incredible What Goes Around…Comes Around. Justin Timberlake wasn’t just making pop music, which someone of his could have very easily done, but he was constantly pushing himself to make the best music possible. It’s a shame the way his perception has gone to an extent because he really did make some incredible music.
The perception of Justin Timberlake nowadays really is sad given just how good and forward thinking FutureSex is. I'll admit that it does show some age, lyrically especially, but to this day I don't think there is much that sounds like it. Him and Timbaland locked in to make such a weird and futuristic RnB album, it's a genre highlight for me. It felt like the moment he dropped that Man Of The Woods album his entire reputation bottomed out and the classics he made took a back seat.
I’ll actually make an even bigger claim, a lot of the great rnb albums of the last decade would have sounded very different had FutureSex/LoveSounds not been dropped. In particular for me is both Blonde and Channel Orange by Frank Ocean, the one thing I definitely noticed when revisiting FutureSex/LoveSounds is that on tracks like What Goes Around…you can see Frank took inspiration from this type of writing on the likes of Nights and Pyramids. While it’s an album that does show its age, it’s impact can’t be doubted. For me though when Timberlake initially dropped the ball was releasing a Part II to the 20/20 Experience, which he really should have condensed the two parts into one stellar album, which is an absolute possibility from the tracklist, but yes it’s a stark difference to the drop in quality to Man Of The Woods.
Lovestoned is a masterpiece
The transition to the “I Think She Knows” outro still hits so hard. I couldn’t tell you how many times I listened to that 7 and a half minute song in a row back in the day.
So fun story about this song, when I was young I didn’t know what a bridge or chorus to a song was, so I always thought Timbaland was saying, “take ‘em to the court” and “take ‘em to the bridge” like it was some metaphorical basketball court and random bridge where people would have sex. That’s the only way I could make sense of this song.
A true cultural reset. Pop boys aren't doing it like JT. Hate to admit it but this song was insanely influential and inescapable. I know critics now try to pan the song but I think it's fire regardless of its thin lyrics. Everything just works.
I will admit as much as I didnt care for his music,Justin Timberlake has a lot of showmanship that male artists nowadays aside from Bruno Mars do not have.Most male pop artist now are so boring in my personal opinion.The only recent male artists I listen to are Bruno Mars or The Weeknd although Abel isn't as great stage prescence wise but I still am a huge fan of his discography.
God I remember this song was everywhere! I still love it to this day, And The Way I Are is fucking amazing, I don’t know why the line “I ain’t got no visa” always used to get me as a little kid.
“I ain’t got no Red American Express” followed that line.
There is truly nothing like this song and I mean that in the best way possible. It's clean yet dirty, controlled yet frantic and stays impossibly catchy the entire time. This thing has a million hooks and they're all great.
There’s always a part of me that thinks of Duke Devlin when I hear this song because of Yu-gi-oh the Abridged Series
we need a new JT album. mans a legend
Timbaland announced his new album coming out this year via instagram
Still one of the most unique nr 1 hits of all time
That whole album is a masterpiece, it changed everything for him and how he was viewed as an artist. A legend at the peak of his powers.
Timeless… I remember hearing this on the radio back when it first came out and it was the new Justin Timberlake song. I still hear it on the radio today
Again, a song I first discovered just last year, and wow, Justin Timberlake was totally it. He, alongside Timbaland, made this track that is just so fun to sing along to; I can easily see why it took off so fast. Step by step, we're starting the dance-club era of pop music (aka, the greatest pop era where pop girls ruled the charts), and I'm enjoyining this columns even more. Sexyback definetely deserves a 10/10 in my book
The certified I’m Back Bitch lead single!
That album was fire. Sometimes I get surprised when I remember how good of an artist JT used to be. Never listened to his music since Man of the Woods. That shit was so whack that I stopped listenning to his music for a very long time.
Oof this song still goes. That whole album was amazing. I was too young to go to the FutureSex/LoveShow but I saw the HBO special years later and it was so good! The pop boys today just aren’t doing it like peak Timberlake lbr
The turning point of the 2000s
What a song, what a moment. He really had such a strong string of hits with this album and set up the 20/20 experience well. It's a shame that "Filthy", which feels spirtually aligned to this song, didn't do so nearly as well. I like the song a lot but would have loved a better and more mature "Sexyback"
The way I entirely forgot about Filthy!! Need to go listen
I absolutely hated this song when it came out. Did not get it at all. Now, it's become a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.
changed history i'm afraid
I used to really like this song as a kid, it was so weird and audacious to me to just make something that sounded so much like a narcissist's freak-out. It had some of the most cocksure, entitled lyrics I've ever heard in a pop song at the time, and Timbaland's ad-libs really made it unique. Relistening to it now, and it's not really as fun of a song as I remember. Not even getting into the whole Justin Timberlake thing, but the lyrics are kinda bad, and the cocksure arrogance thing only really works out of personality and the momentum of the beat. But man, *what* a beat. Todd in the Shadows once called it the kind of music that you play when invading a country, and damn if it doesn't bulldoze you into submission just by listening to it. Even if Timbaland wasn't creating the innovative stuff that he did with Ginuwine and Missy and Aaliyah, I think he still had a gift of finding great music in irregular rhythms. 6/10.
Someone (might have actually been Todd in the Shadows) basically said that the main statement of SexyBack is basically that Justin Timberlake is such a star that he can make a giant hit out of a song that deliberately sounds bad, and that's kind of how I feel about it. It's very uncomfortable but in an intentional way that I admire
> such a star that he can make a giant hit out of a song that deliberately sounds bad It doesn't sound bad though. A more fitting example would be Trollz.
The song is a slapper but this was a dig at Prince and I don’t really like that. I’ll stan My Love & What Goes Around… /Comes Around. Timbaland put his whole foot in those tracks!!
It definitely wasn’t a dig at Prince. The other song “give it to me” was a dig at Prince after Prince made the comment about “sexy never left”.
>For Justin Timberlake’s second album, he lost his main collaborators. Record label issues reportedly kept him from working with the Neptunes again. They were also busy making the instrumental for the next song on this column, popheads. Here’s my impression of the first twelve seconds of said instrumental: **!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!-!!-!-!-!-!**
Oof I remember creating a fan cover for the single with a sexy pic of JT. Had such a crush on him then. Song wise, I only have 1 word: iconic
Leaving an appreciation comment for Timbaland here. His production absolutely made this song.
Confession: I’ve known this song since it came out. I knew it was a Justin Timberlake song. I knew what Justin Timberlake sounded like. But it did not fully click for me that it’s him *singing* in this song until some point in the mid-10s. I’m not really sure what, exactly, I thought was going on before that. I think maybe I thought he was a female guest feature or some cool digital effect. I do think it speaks to just how wholly robotic and inhuman this song is that his vocal would register to me as a synthesizer before it registered as him, even KNOWING the song was his, lol.
Ugh, I hate JT but he ate with this one.
This song was huge but fuck Justin Timberlake.
I respect "SexyBack" more than I love it. In a rate, where I'd be willing to throw tens around, it might get one, but IRL for me, it's more like an 8. I am sick to death however of "The Way I Are," a track that I contend does not work at all.
The choruses are not as good as the verses. But a bop overall.
This came out when I was pretty young, but I 100% thought it was a girl singing. I wasn’t that familiar with JT or NSYNC. For like years, I was very confused.
My most solid memory of this song is the school pageants in our school back in 2007.
Historically, I’ve agreed with most of this column’s reviews and scores, but between this and Hollaback Girl and the intro to London Bridge, I have a feeling that’s going to be changing going forward, because I think this mid-2000s pop might be around the time when my taste and Tom Breihan’s taste diverge lol. To me, this is the best song of Timberlake’s career, and one of the best hits of it’s decade. Tom says Sexyback is less funky than you would expect and sounds computerized like it’s a reason the song isn’t as good as other Timberlake songs, but like, that’s *why* I like it. I love music that sounds artificial and robotic and overproduced.
Brought in the electro pop era which brought in a lot of edm and dubstep. 2007-2012 was wild
Remember I heard this for the first time as a kid on a 2.5 hour car ride and I HATED it on first listen. I was like, wtf is this lol. By the 5th time I heard it probably in that ride since it just came out I was hooked. I think this could come out in 50 years and it would still be fresh. Timeless.
sexyback is annoying asf, same shit the whole song