How Does Justin Timberlake's 'Suit And Tie' Measure Up?
Not many people can get away with telling Jay Z to ‘get up off his seat’, but Justin Timberlake sure can. As was rumored last week, Justin Timberlake has returned with a new track featuring the rap megastar, the former N Sync man and current Myspace mogul also announcing on his official website that he had a new album on the way called The 20/20 Experience, out sometime this year.
So how does it sound? Well, you’re not going to get a JT track that doesn’t ooze with a slick confidence, and in that respect the classily titled ‘Suit & Tie’ doesn’t disappoint, a brass-laden intro unfurling into a languid opening that sees Timberlake promising to show someone “a few things”. We think he means sexy things. It then picks up a gear and slips comfortably into a pleasant if not wholly captivating flow; yet it’s clear this is the star maturing into his song craft, there’s not as much of the vocal urgency than imprinted his earlier material, replaced with an ever-more cocksure tone.
Jay Z’s appearance arrives as Timberlake says “get out your seat Hove”, and he sure does – just about. It feels a bit phoned in from Izzo to be honest, his words struggling to really take hold of the song and push it elsewhere, the song lapsing back into its laconic chorus. In many ways this is typical Timberlake: confident, smooth, crisp, but we’ll be hoping for a little more when the album eventually hits.