It's not so much what Justin Timberlake says as HOW he says it. Any former boy-bander worth his choreography lessons can claim they're "bringing sexy back;" the trick is selling the line so audiences actually believe it. And that's...
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It's not so much what Justin Timberlake says as HOW he says it. Any former boy-bander worth his choreography lessons can claim they're "bringing sexy back;" the trick is selling the line so audiences actually believe it. And that's where the Tennessean and ex-*NSYNC frontman excels: Convincing listeners, through his demeanor and delivery, he's as cool as he thinks he is.
Timberlake is the raw sexuality of Prince funneled through the boy-next-door looks of a Tiger Beat centerfold, rendering him both hyper-sexual and boyishly non-threatening. That duality lets him get away with plenty, and he has fun pushing his boundaries. "Her body's pressed up on me, I think she's ready to blow/Must be my future sex love sound," he gloats in the lyrics to the title track of his 2006 album, FutureSex LoveSounds. It might not make sense but it sounds sexy, and that's the point. Sometimes his horniness gets the best of him -- "Where'd you get your boobs?" from "Boutique in Heaven" is an atypically clumsy come-on -- but the female anatomy has clouded the better judgment of many a creative mind.
Timberlake famously got personal in the lyrics to "Cry Me a River," an unflinching breakup diss directed at famous ex Britney Spears from his 2002 solo debut Justified, but he's best when speaking universally rather than drawing from life experience. His stab at earnestness, the say-no-to-drugs tale "Losing My Way" ("Hi my name is Bob and I work at my job/I make 40-some dollars a day"), proves he's more effective sticking to the bedroom and the club and should leave the workaday lyrical narratives to the far less sexy.
