Justin Timberlake - LoveStoned

The new Justin Timberlake record, as I'm sure you are sick of hearing about, is really really good. The biggest flaw, I feel, is that at times it feels so slick that it comes off as being cold, without a distinctive personality behind the songs. Not so on this, the album's best track, though.

The first five or so minutes are generally what you hear on the album - really highly refined club pop made for dancing, sexing, etc. The beat really bumps out of the speakers better than most anything I have heard, well, ever. And the orchestral flourishes add a vague James Bond cool to the production.

But the magic comes when the world created by by the track gives way to a single guitar playing a really simple strumming line. The orchestra comes in, but rather than swooping, it lays the groundwork for vocals, piano and just a simple beat. Timberlake uses all the same words from the song proper, but against these new colors, the speaker has transformed from a cocky rock star into, as pfork put it, "a hopeless addict," giving new meaning to the track title. The last two minutes are maybe the prettiest music I have heard anywhere in a year. Not what I or anyone expected from the "SexyBack" guy.