A Medicine For Heartbreak

Justin Timberlake “Drink You Away”

I have a hard time figuring out how I feel about Justin Timberlake. When it comes down to it, I only really like a handful of songs from throughout his career, but the ones I like, I like a lot. I admire his raw talent and show biz charm, but can also find it hollow and tacky. I think his taste for recording overlong, overstuffed songs is incredibly indulgent, but I respect that someone on that level of fame and success is willing to take a chance with people’s attention spans and willingness to embrace Timbaland’s aesthetic excesses. I find that I like Timberlake more when he’s further away from that Timbaland sound – I never really cared for Timbaland much in the first place and a lot of his sound just seems painfully dated to me now. Timberlake’s charms are flattered by rather old school sounds: The white boy soul of “Pusher Love Girl,” the Michael Jackson disco of “Take Back the Night,” and “Drink You Away,” which is about as rock as he gets and basically sounds like an arty remix of a Black Crowes song. That gospel-blues-rock vibe suits Timberlake well, and the bolder dynamics of that structure gives him a chance to be dramatic and emphatic in a way that he generally can’t be when he’s in a more moody, static Timbaland suite. It just gives me a nudge towards humanity, especially when too much of his music sounds like the antiseptic result of living the life of an unfathomably wealthy playboy.

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