The Singles Jukebox

Grown… man?

[Video][Website]
[6.67]

Britt Alderfer: Justin’s back. Again. Not from the future(sex), this time he’s traveling from the past. Last-decade past. But, you know, Justin can go anywhere. He can take his time getting into the studio, he can take his time starting this song off. It took him six years. I picture him there, not even working hard though I’m sure he did, but more like just catching the melodies fluttering around his head like pinning butterflies to the wall. Or clouds. How to take a cloud and pin it down? Justin has me re-contemplating the meaning of life. Maybe it’s just the dance floor, everything’s the dancefloor, and sly flirtation and disco balls? Or smash the disco balls? Let him show you a few things? About love? This song’s going to decimate wedding receptions everywhere. I hope one of my friends gets married soon.
[8]

Patrick St. Michel: First, let’s get the negative out of the way — Jay-Z’s verse feels unnecessary, an attempt to cram one more big name on to the marquee when it’s bound to be overshadowed by the other two stars. He gets in a couple good lines, but his interlude just slows down a track that had a good groove going. Outside of Jay, this is pretty great. “SexyBack” was an inescapable presence at all the campus events and parties I went to back in 2006, the perfect compliment to a technically illegal night of jungle juice consumption. Here’s the single that becomes a spring formal staple, the song that should appear on every playlist of a fancy yacht party from here on out. Timbaland’s production is ritzy as heck, and the whole thing is structured like a musical number about the finer things that makes you want to rent a tuxedo for no reason. Timberlake, meanwhile, does a great job balancing suave retroness (watch him use the word “doozy”) with modern-day pop star (“I be on my suit and tie shit” and describing his love interest “fly”). Brooks Brothers best cash out the advertising fund for this one.
[8]

Andrew Casillas: Oh so this is basically Entertainment 720 in musical form? Cause only Jean-Ralphio Saperstein can get away with spouting something like “So thick, now I know why they call it a fatty” with a straight face. And those horns sound way too clean to get me excited. Could definitely use more Roy Hibbert too.
[6]

Alfred Soto: After a gruesome start — basso sound effects that in 2006 were already shitty interludes on FutureSex/LoveSounds — it shifts tempo and rhythm, grafting a JT lyric about ovens and burned supper to a rudimentary beat augmented by horns and strummed harps. Basically this song stands or falls on the listener’s willingness to believe that Timberlake would leave a suit and tie on the floor to wrinkle, and whether he should have finished the song instead of handing it to Jay-Z.
[6]

Anthony Easton: Placid, polite, and formal — the music of the bourgeoisie,  where the uniforms are no longer a fashionable subversion, but an expectation of well-modulated, well-monied taste. As thin as a Nan Kempner, and almost as regal. 
[9]

Iain Mew: I keep hearing the intro as Justin repeating the phrase “shit tie, shit tie”, like he’s wearing some novelty monstrosity and berating himself for it. Which is one more reason the song would be better without said intro, because for the rest of it it’s clear that he couldn’t be happier with his choice of clothing and the confidence it’s giving. The bit with Jay-Z is also a little plodding (only about half his fault), but he gets one part thing dead right when he refers to “tuxedos for no reason” — the best thing the song does is convey the joy of getting dressed up and putting on a show for its own sake. “Let me show you a few things”; an emphasis on performance rather than where the performance leads. The horns and other musical flourishes agree.
[7]

Doug Robertson: Last time Justin brought sexy back. This time I hope he’s kept the receipt.
[4]

Pete Baran: I don’t quite get the point of the intro. A somnambulist sting which achieves in sucking all of the air out of the room until all the air is let back in the room with Justin’s falsetto. Much like when his early Michael Jackson–esque solo material came out, this is both an oddly unexpected tone and reassuringly good. Yet again he seems to be a slight step of the Zeitgeist and a couple of steps to the side. With the exception of the somewhat leadenly predictable Jay-Z rap, this is almost featherweight. But delightfully so, designed to be listened to a lot and I get the sense it will be. Its not the floor-filler you might expect, but I bet we’ll soon work out how its supposed to be used and it’ll make our lives that little bit better.
[8]

Andrew Ryce: The intro and outro feel pretty disjointed, but once it drops into that silky verse, all is forgiven. Mixed feelings about this one: I don’t want to hear Justin go all retro after how amazing FutureSex was, but at the same time this is so fun it’s hard to argue with. The production is almost too precious — romantic comedy music like recent Jamie Lidell — but it works, and I love the way JT’s voice sounds. I can’t tell if his voice is deeper/damaged or he’s just exploiting a broader range, but either way, it’s good. Considering “SexyBack” was the lead single for FutureSex, and was easily the second worst track on that LP, I still have high hopes for the album.
[8]

Edward Okulicz: That harp pushes what might have been a prime bit of frisky dorkiness into disappointingly cheesy territory. Certainly Timberlake is reliably enthusiastic, but the last thing the horns code is sexuality. Dare I suggest that JT has moved on from trying to be Michael Jackson and settled on Leo Sayer? Except, uh, not as good?
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: The breezy brass revivalism was better when Mya did it, the menswear fetishism isn’t even better than when Barney Stinson did it, Timbaland and Jay-Z were better when they were musicians rather than signifiers, the chopped-and-screwy intro is just silly, and I never needed to hear Justin Timberlake’s “fatty” negging. (I know what he’s referring to. Still negging.)
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: With tighter editing, it could be killer. Lose the smug intro, and either cut Hov down to eight bars instead of sixteen or remove him entirely, and it could be an instant dancefloor classic, those bubbling marimbas and party horns carrying even an awkward graceless dancer like me to my feet.
[7]

Brad Shoup: The nonstop piano glissandos are a cartoon wolf-whistle, a dude going “wowwwww,” a sentiment best locked up like a fire extinguisher. Justin’s been chasing red carpet for years now, so suits and ties just remind me of how much work he’s got to do back in this world. He claimed to bring sexy back the same year Sparks released Hello Young Lovers; now he wants to tell R&B how to dress?
[5]

Jer Fairall: There’s about two-and-a-half songs here if you take the plodding opening minute as the pre-track interlude that it would have been on the album, and the jittery Hov rap is stitched in so awkwardly that it feels tonally inappropriate with the rest of the track in every way. Hell, even the product plugs feel wholly extraneous on the grounds that this particular suit and tie existing only to be thrust to the floor. The remaining 75%, though, is absolutely luscious and all the more charming for JT’s inability to ever let this creamy slow jam ever sit still, constantly inviting in classic soul horn rolls, glittery synths and an airy, popping percussion trick when he should just be getting down to the business of seducing. For all of his smooth gentlemanly conduct (the “fatty” line notwithstanding), it is this giddy enthusiasm that ends up being so completely disarming.
[7]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: First of all, let me say I’m certain that Jay’s verse was pulled out from his suit pocket from the “Excuse Me Miss” video, dated-yet-smooth as it is. Secondly: Timbaland sure broke into his vault for this, right? “Suit & Tie” sounds insane, a boat shoes-clad stepper’s anthem transmitted through a distorted wormhole, transforming itself into a chopped ’n’ screwed chamber of tricks by its own will. Insane. And JT? He sounds so eager to please after so long away, his voice unstrained and happy. A brief confessional: I considered taking [1] off for the clunkiness of the “call it a fattie” line, but this is the same man who sold “my name is Bob/and I work at my job” and, hell, he sells the variable attempts at wooing here anyway.
[7]

Will Adams: The lumbering intro and Jay-Z’s sleep talking are a damn shame, because the rest of this is just sublime. Harp sweeps and Timbaland’s popping percussion set the stage for my favorite musical moment of the year so far: “Let me show you a few things about love,” with a beautiful seventh chord landing right on “love,” appropriately enough. It’s really paining me not to rate this higher, but some divine order mandates that Jay-Z stamp his ego on everything, so:
[6]

Sabina Tang: By virtue of playlist proximity, the two recent pop titan comebacks seem to bookend a single night of flawless coupledom. We now rewind to a few hours before Destiny’s Child left the VIP, when Jay and Bey are still prepping for their gala dinner double date with Justin and his lady. Steam-engine bursts of brass and light-as-air vibraphone arpeggios set up a mellow paean to good looks and discerning style; reminiscent of Kanye’s fashionista turn on “American Boy,” and just as disarmingly, sincerely positive. “You ready, JT?” Jay asks, strolling in with snifter in hand and bow tie still loose around his collar. JT is ready all right, but the dance floor is yet to come.
[9]

Zach Lyon: Pop writers are probably supposed to say more than “I like this because it got stuck in my head for an hour and I really enjoyed that hour,” but I’m not sure I’d be able to say more about any other Justin track I’ve loved. Let’s pretend the last seven years never happened.
[7]