Album review: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Nanda collection

I never thought I'd see the day when I would like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's music.

As a Perfume fan who felt Yasutaka Nakata was cheating on A-chan, Nocchi and Kashiyuka by working with some young Lolita dressed bitch who can't even dance, I initially had no time and no love for anything Pamyu Pamyu put out. But when my robohoes Perfume started to fall off with the singles post JPN, I wondered if Nakata was falling off in general. Turned out he wasn't. He was just giving Pamyu Pamyu the good stuff. Good stuff which I grew to like and sparked my interest in the inevitable album.

I very much kept my desire for an album from a 20 year old girl who poses with puppets and wears sponge-balls in her hair a secret from many. But with the album out, the secret is out, as am I. Hello world. My name is J and I love me some Pussy Pamyu.

To dismiss Pussy Pamyu as a fad would be an easy thing to do. After all, at a glance she is just some hot mess looking girl putting out these childish sounding songs. She's often drawn comparisons to Lady Gaga, which seems like a fair comparison, until you dig a little deeper. Gaga's eccentricities seem overblown, over thought and try too hard to come off as couture and high fashion. This zaniness she expends visually however is never carried over to her music which let's face it, is pretty basic. Her songs all sound like sexual nursery rhymes. Pamyu Pamyu's visual zaniness on the other hand feels much more genuine, as it's an addendum of a fashion trend she grew up with. She isn't trying to be hip. She isn't even really trying to be liked. She genuinely wants people to look at her outfits and think "What the fuck!?" Unlike Lady Gaga, Pamyu Pamyu's music is a complete aural take on how she looks visually. It all connects. Gaga does not have this same symbiosis and this is where the comparisons end and Pamyu Pamyu pretty much smothers Lady Gaga with a larger more colourful wig than anything she's able to pull out of her Haus.

Pamyu Pamyu's music isn't for everybody and she and her team know this. But it doesn't make her music any less credible. And when Yasutaka Nakata is involved, you have to just acknowledge that credibility and incredibility will be a given. I really do not think there is any other producer who could have done this album but Nakata, because he gets Pamyu Pamyu. They share the same vision. There is an intrinsic level of understanding and trust between the two which is evident from the second you press play on the first track of this album. Nanda collection is a very self aware body of work. Fascinating, compelling and ingenious. Nothing about this album feels particularly safe. No two songs sound the same. Nakata's sounds of use range from bagpipes and acoustic guitars to chiptunage and a kazoo. Nothing is off limits here.

Despite Pamyu's cute appearance there is a dark, sadistic streak to her and this runs through the music too. Every song tows a line between being sickly sweet and downright dirty. There is a constant underlying of unease on every song, as though the tempo or the vibe of the song could switch completely, which they often do. "Ninjya re bang bang" sounds like a GameBoy ninja anthem. "Invader Invader" starts off sounding like a surfer song cluster-fucked with a NES, before launching into a Dubstep breakdown which then flips into a piano solo. J-Pop twerk anthem "Mi" opens with an Edo period marching band and then morphs into a Euro house dance stomper. The kazoo and cowbell ridden "Noriko to norio" sounds like a children's television show theme with Dubstep-esque moments snuck in every now and then. The album is bonkers, but it all holds together in a state of controlled chaos.

Nakata's productions have always been amazing, but Nanda collection  marks the first time where you feel he stepped outside of the box with a lot of the material and really set his sights on creating something conceptually unique. Going much further left field than he felt he was ever allowed to with Capsule or Perfume's material. Nothing on this album feels accidental or misplaced. Every song on this album has been crafted with a laser style level of precision. From the Celtic fanfare of the intro to the Capsule-esque club sound of the album closer "Otona no kodomo", which marks one of the albums only moments where a song falls into normality. Normality being this albums' biggest weakness. There are a handful of songs on this album which do feel a little too normal, particularly within the latter half of the album where Nanda collection begins to lose steam. When you've been taken on such phonic trips with the likes of "Invader Invader" and "Fashion monster", songs such as "Saigo no ice cream" and "Kura kura" feel lacking and basic in comparison and don't quite cut it.

The genius exhibited in some of the songs on this album aren't just a master class in how to create great J-Pop, but Pop records PERIOD. Nothing I've heard in Western Pop over the past 8 months comes close to the genius production and melodic infectiousness of "Invader Invader" or "Ninjya re bang bang".

When I first listened to Nanda collection I did not like it. My initial reaction was that perhaps Pamyu Pamyu should have just released an EP of the singles and not bothered to release an LP EVER IN HER LIFE. But as time went on, I found myself curiously listening to this album more and more. With each listen I began to understand what Pamyu Pamyu and Nakata had created here. When I took this album for what it was, everything clicked and I began to discover an appreciation for the songs. I still think this album is a hot mess. But it's a pretty damn good hot mess which is fully aware of just how hot a mess it is. Nanda collection is wholly consistent and ingeniously crafted soundtrack to Pamyu Pamyu's world.

Album highlights:
■ Ninjya re bang bang
■ Invader Invader ★ J's fave
■ Mi
■ Fashion monster
■ Otona no kodomo

A B-side this album should have included:
■ 100% no jibun ni

I ain't got no time for:
■ Kura kura

Album review: Angela Aki - Blue

Let's be real. Angela Aki is a talent. She has a great voice, she's a true musician and she has a level of musical integrity which you have to search for these days with so many pop artists fighting it out on the front lines of music. But her sound had been stale for many years. Something which begun to take a change when she fell pregnant. Her first post pregnancy release Songbook wasn't the best showcase of this change in sound given that a fair amount of the material was recorded long before its release. But it blew Life and White out of the water and showed many facets of Angela's vocal range - exhibiting a conviction and a raw power that none of her studio albums had really showcased up until that point. Blue see's Angela's sound take on a more playful timbre. Lavish productions complete with guitars, synths and Angela's new found interest in pop.


There isn't a single terrible song on Blue, but there aren't a great deal of amazing ones neither. Many of the songs have a sunny disposition about them and are sung almost like nursery rhymes - acting like a soundtrack to her first born child. I love that Angela's new chapter in life is colouring her music in such a way. But if you are a fan of her darker, more sombre songs where she is singing with that heart-stricken longing in her voice, you won't get much of that here. 

Blue puts two of Angela most potent elements on the back burner for near enough the entire CD. The piano and her vocals. Only on "Aeiou" does Angela strip everything right back and give you these two things, delivering what is one of the best, most poignant and outright stunning moments on the album. It's an odd and unexpected start to the album, but it gives you exactly what you want from Angela from the outset. The problem with this is that you want more of this, only for you to never get it. Everything from here on out is happy go lucky, bubbly and frivolous, up until the album closer "One family ~Uchuu no nagisa~".

Blue feels very much inspired by the 80's, in a similar way to which Songbook was. Most of the songs sound like themes to 80's cartoons and children's shows, with arrangements sporting synths, guitars and Angela's piano keys weaving in between this. It's Angela's most aurally coloured album to date. A complete contrast to Life which was pretty much entirely acoustic. But the heart Angela gives in these songs may not be in the vein of what fans of her previous material want. Even when Angela was singing about optimism, the highs of being in love, or just a pair of black glasses, there was always a longing in her voice and that element is what is missing here. I don't want to shit on Angela's happiness as its clear the birth of her child has had a massive influence on this album and was a source of inspiration. But I miss that guttural element of her music. That crux which made Answer such an amazing album, made "Kiss me goodbye" such an amazing song and had "Tsugaru kaikyou fuyu keshiki" such a stand out on White. Angela works this balance perfectly on "Kokuhaku" and "One family ~Uchuu no bagisa" - delivering brightness, happiness and odes to being completely in love without skimping on that element of longing and true heart.

Angela has delivered a decent enough album which can be played from start to finish in any track order and provide a nice listen, and the richness and variation of sounds on this album is a nice change of pace after the sterility of Life and White. There is a real sense of newly breathed life into her music and her vocal delivery, but it comes at a cost - which is an album of songs which aren't that memorable. Answer and Songbook remain as Angela's best releases for me. Blue is a rounded look at Angela as an artist, but the elements she needed to push with this album she barely scratches the surface of in the ways she did with Songbook (the strength of dem vocals) and even White on selected tracks (covering Enka in ways your fave could never). I admire the direction Angela took with this album, but I need more actual songs, less nursery rhymes and mo' vocals.

Album highlights:
■ Aeiou ★ J's fave
■ Kokuhaku
■ Kokoro no tenkyohou
■ Factory
■ One family

Other Angela Aki album reviews: Answer | Songbook

Album review: Namie Amuro - Feel

Back in 2002, Namie left Pop on somebody's door step, ran as fast as she could and never looked back for 10 years. But much like a curious mother seeking out her adopted child, Namie is at that point of latching back onto what she let go of all those years ago. Feel is Namie coming full circle with herself.

In hindsight it feels oddly like Namie was always supposed to reach this point. With an original studio album titled Past < Future following a best compilation which is references on its album cover, then an album which used an eclipse as its creative motif. Many have already called Namie out for  selling out and being commercial, but what would you expect from an artist who is signed to Avex, started off in a group covering Eurobeat and has been commercial for 20 years!? I can't condem Namie for this when she strikes gold for 80% of this album.

Each of Namie's albums from Style onwards has been heavily based on what is hot in the US at the time of its release and Feel is no different. We get EDM, house, a bit of trance, a splash of disco and a heavy dose of wub-wub only 2 tracks into the album. It would have been very easy for everything to feel cookie cutter as a result of this, but the results are difficult to dismiss when Namie sells each of these songs with much more gusto and self assurance than she ever did when she was transitioning into R&B with Genius 2000 and Break the rules. It also helps that the songs are really fucking good. The haunting euphoria of "Alive". The Dr. Luke esque-warbles of "Rainbow". The big beat drops of "Hands on me". The euro house rave of "Heaven". The island swagger of "La la la". The K-Pop bounce of "Supernatural love". The garage / 2-step kilter of the M-Flo tinged "Stardust in my eyes". Every song has a life unto itself and holds well on its own - which was the one thing Uncontrolled lacked, as the singles from that album only worked when they were put together. Feel is Namie's first album which makes you seriously question the eligibility of Namie releasing something in the West. UK and US radio could play "Hands on me" or "Heaven" in between a Rihanna and a Pitbull track and nobody would question it or wonder 'What the fuck was that!?' Namie could have a strong international 4 single run with songs off of this album easily. Namie isn't just harvesting Japanese wigs. She wants some white girl weaves and hood clips in from bitches in the hood.

To say Namie has a vocal range would be the pot calling the kettle a non singing bitch, when the pot's name is Pamyu Pamyu. But Feel explores her vocal selling in a way none of her other albums do. There's an energy and life in Namie which runs through each of the songs. She sounds ravenously desperate for cock on "Hands on me". Super sassy on "Supernatural love" and seductively reflective on the possibility of actual sex on the beach in "La la la". This is Namie at her most confident. That shy, uncertainty Namie had about her before, it's nowhere to be seen on this album. I guess that's what shitting on Ayu's sales does to a woman.

Uncontrolled marked the first time that Namie had recorded a batch of songs entirely in English, and with Feel continuing on the trend, this is something Namie fans will need to start getting used to. At this rate, her next album will be completely in Engrish. We all joke about how Namie makes up her own language when she sings half of these songs, but for her to do this shows great bravery, as well as an appreciation for her fans outside of Japan and also an ear for what makes a song flow better. There are many chicks in J-Pop who wish they had the balls to sing a verse in English let alone an entire song. Namie's English melds better with the music here than Utada's did for a chunk of Exodus and she doesn't rely on auto-tune and vocoders to mask how bad her English is how BoA did on her English language debut. The only issue with Namie's English on this album is it is so wildly inconsistent. Generally, her English is a shit tonne better than it was on Uncontrolled. Her English on "La la la" is so near perfect that I get emotional and shed a tear every time I hear her sing the first verse and she sounds like an almost fluent English speaker during the rap sections of "Supernatural love" and "Heaven". And yet, we gets 'supplies' instead of 'surprise' and 'parking rot' instead of 'parking lot'. I love Namie. On a good day I would defend this bitch and argue she was talking about issuing aid in Iran (supplies) and that cars are susceptible to corrosion when parked in a particular way (parking rot). But I can't defend this shit when she's able to pronounce the word 'stratosphere' on one song, but not the word 'heaven' on another. I know English is not her first language, but if she's going to start recording the bulk of her songs in English, she needs to brush up on this shit. The issue isn't that she can't pronounce the words, it's that we know she probably can or could if somebody sang the words back to her. Home girl needs somebody to quality control her English across every song.

Feel is a much more consistent album than Uncontrolled. But that sticking feeling that a couple of the songs were recorded before a musical direction for the album was settled on lingers across it in the same way it did on Uncontrolled. To a lesser extent, but to an extent none-the-less. "Can you feel this love" and "Big boys cry" sound completely out of place and pale sonically in comparison to the rest of the material. "Can you feel this love" isn't terrible, but it's not a song you would ever voluntarily skip to. And "Big boys cry" is just rubbish. I expected better from Dsign music. I am appalled that it took a team of 7 songwriters who were responsible for the perfection that was Girls' generation's "Genie", Jasmine's "B*TCH*S" and Crystal Kay's "What we do" to come up with something this bad.

Namie has done Pop better than Britney did on Circus and Femme fatale. Has done electro and house better than Madonna has done on every album since Ray of light. She has taken a hot steaming dump on so many bitches in Pop. But as good as this album is, I'm still left with a feeling of wanting more and that this evolution in Namie should have come a little sooner. What Feel represents for me is an album which is solid and has many moments of greatness, but is let down slightly because so much of it should have been given a couple of years ago. But I also appreciate that in many regards, Namie was somewhat of a late bloomer. Despite me picking apart this album in the final moments of my review, I admire that Namie once again switched up her sound, stuck with it and made it work. If Ayu and Kumi weren't taking notes after Namie wiped the floor with both of their wigs with Past < Future, then they had damn well better pull out a Muji notebook and take some fucking notes now. Ayu and Kumi need to start switching up their sound and stop playing it safe. You could argue Namie played it completely safe with this album being of a sound which has been saturating the top 20 for the past 2 years. But she still showcases a form of evolution that I've yet to see and / or hear from Ayu and Kumi, who seem overly content with just continual re-hashes.

I find it difficult to rank this album amongst the likes of Past < Future and Play because it offers something entirely different. Play was a hot album because it was a much more refined version of Queen of hip pop. Past < Future was a solid album because it absolutely nailed every sound Namie had been trying to go for since turning over to the Urban sector. Where-as Feel feels like it marks a new turning point in Namie's career altogether.

Comparisons aside, Feel holds on its own as a solid album and is certainly in the running for one of the best produced J-Pop albums of 2013. It is a great addition to Namie's discography and anice showcase of what she's able to pull. I never would have thought Namie could hold her own on some of the styles she exhibits on this album, but she really does own her shit.

Album highlights:
■ Alive ★ J's fave
■ Contrail
■ Hands on me
■ Heaven
■ Poison
■ La la la ★ J's fave
■ Supernatural love
■ Stardust in my eyes

Single review: Kumi Koda - Summer trip

Kumi never passes up a chance to skank it up and give Japan a whiff of the in-between of her legs with a Summer EP. (Japan gets MAD humid for the Summer, so that shit must smell like dead Raccoons). Summer trip is business as usual. Giving birth to a child has done nothing to evolve or change Kumi's style in anyway. So those of you hoping for something a little different here will be disappointed. Those of you who live for Kumi doing the same old, same old trick of one trashy rock song, one hood track and one pop jam will love this shit like a cat all over a freshly cooked kipper.

Kumi starts off her Summer trip with "Lalalalala", which is Kumi's obligatory trashy rock song - in which she wanders around Venice beach looking like a rabid fan who had escaped from the set of Christina Aguilera's "Your body" video shoot with a handful of her 'My little Pony' hair colour clip in's. "Lalalalala" is wholly pedestrian, but it does its job. Whenever Kumi tries too hard with anything it falls. And just like a slow walker on a Zebra crossing, Kumi pedestrianizes all over the hood track "Touchdown". The song is nothing special. Fans are already doing war on YouTube and Tumblr over whose version of the song is better (JoJo had recorded a version of "Touchdown" 2 years ago). But "Touchdown" works well because the song is simple and once again Kumi isn't overtly trying to be too hood or wildly freaky. She's just taking it easy over the beat and working it out. The same can't be said for either of Summer trips' videos, but those are another story.

"Is this trap?" is the best song on the EP, yet the most flawed. It's the one song which had the most potential to be that big killer song which this EP sorely lacks, but the structure never allows this song to truly get off of the ground. It sounds like a really loosely produced version of Rihanna's "Who's that chick?" and a RedOne leftover from Lady Gaga's The fame. The hook is absolute fire, but the sparse, off-kilter vibe of the verses knocks the song off balance. And there's no skirting around the horrendous whiff of Engrish in the song title. It's a shame Kumi didn't didn't shoot a video for this song, because out of the 3 offerings on Summer trip, it's the song which stands out the most and feels as though it could have been a stand alone single.

For each of these songs on Summer trip, Kumi has done a better version of it before. "Touchdown" pales in comparison to Trick's "This is not a love song". "Lalala" pales in comparison to Universe's "Lick me". And "Is this trap" doesn't hold a pussy whiffed wine bottle to Trick's "Driving". Which were all much better songs, done years ago. Whilst none of the individual songs on this release are amazing, collectively they work together nicely. But I just wish Kumi would move away from this tired formula, because she is becoming too predictable and this offering pales greatly in comparison to what many ladies in J-Pop have served up over the past couple of months.

Despite Summer trip being comprised of what Kumi has done countless times before, she sounds much more comfortable on this release and her vocals feel much more in line with the music. Kumi has a habit of trying to out-sing the production which is reigned in completely on these songs. Her sense of melody on hooks is much tighter than its ever been on anything she's released before. She also rides the music differently in a way which makes you feel as though she is gearing towards singing a song in Engrish as Namie has taken to doing. But unless her Engrish has improved since those tragic versions of "Real emotion" and "1000 words", she may want to stay tight with that Nihongo.

Summer trip is a cute collection of songs, but they aren't memorable for shit. Of all the Summer singles to have dropped so far, this is ranking as one of the most boring and least care worthy. 4 times and 3 splash were much better than this and they were by no means all that good.

Highlight:
■ Is this trap? ★ J's fave

Album review: Bright - Bright

Bright's second album Real was the obligatory follow up album. Far from perfect, but good enough that you could hear the potential in these girls to deliver something great in the future. But their third offering falls short on this completely. It features a couple of good songs, but there is nothing here to lead you to believe that these girls are capable of anything more. All this album does is make these girls come off as 'just another girl group'. When in fact they are able to do what many of today's group in J-Pop are able to. Sing and harmonize.

J-R&B is permeated throughout all of Bright's releases, but this splinters off into different sounds. On Real this was done is a masterful way. Each song had its own vibe, but collectively formed a cohesive album. Bright on the other hand is a raggedly put together selection of songs, with no sense of flow. Whoever put this track list together gave zero fucks about the listening experience of this album or whether these girls would be able to maintain a record deal following its release. Couple this with songs which aren't that good to begin with and you have a recipe for an album which was always going to lead to the group splitting up and getting dropped.

A third of the songs on this album are really nice songs. "Eternity" is the albums' sweet spot. A 5 minute summation of Bright at their finest, delivering smooth vocals over a hard hitting piano laden slow jam. "Ichinen nikagatsu nijiinichi", "Lonely tears" and"Autabi ni suki ni natte" all showcase Bright's knack for slick harmonies, sweet delivery and a comfort for mid-tempo J-R&B lite jams. But the remainder of the songs are just sub-standard filler which you wouldn't think twice about Shazaming if you heard them playing at your local McDonalds. Bright touch on EDM with album opener "Bad girl!", which sounds like a leftover from BoA's Outgrow. Album closer "Girls be ambitious" is a few BPM's short of sounding like a theme from Sonic R in the worst possible way (Sonic R's soundtrack is in fact, amazing). "Koigokoro " starts off really nice, but quickly turns into a thrashy mess which sounds primed for acting at a theme song to some high school J-drama.

The album as a while is generally mid tempo, with occasional uptempo songs, all of which sound awful. It's a terrible representation of Bright, because contrary to this album the girls can do uptempo and do it well - as proven on Real's J-banger "Shining butterfly". And THIS is an overarching theme with this album. Poor representation. There is nothing about this album which would entice anybody to entertain looking into these girls and becoming fans. No matter how good a song "Eternity" is or the amount of flesh being flashed on the album cover.

These girls have nice voices, but what they lack is a particular style or that special factor which is unique theirs - both visually and musically. And if it can't be pinned down at this stage in their careers after 6 years, then it's probably for the best that they split up / got dropped / stop caring. Real wasn't an amazing album, but it was a damn good one which showed that somebody within the team responsible for pulling that album together had an idea of what Bright's sound should probably be. Bright on the other hand shows a lack of direction, focus and an utter lack of care. The whole thing is grossly mediocre.

To think that Girls' generation's I got a boy and Girls & Peace are better than this makes me feel a little sick, but it's true. Nagi's Xbox jawline couldn't cover how much of a mess this album truly is. Bye girls.



Album highlights:
■ Theme of Bright
■ Eternity ★ J's fave
■ Ichinen nikagatsu nijiinichi
■ Autabi ni suki ni natte

Album review: Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 experience

Nobody loves a muse quite like Justin Timberlake. Most draw inspiration from muses. But Justin straight up sleeps with the music of his muses and crawls inside a bitch. Justified saw Justin playing the white born Michael Jackson. FutureSex/LoveSounds saw Justin stroking Prince's weave through a lavender curtain. And his third effort The 20 / 20 experience should be throwing a royalty check and platinum braid beads to Stevie Wonder. His aural influence on this album isn't as obvious as the aforementioned. But it's there. The shade slight irony that Justin went and named the album around vision when a n***a is blind. What Justin manages to do here though is throw a few of extra flavours into Stevie's pitcher of cool-aid by pulling from era's which jump between the 60's, 80's and late 90's. So essentially what we get here is an album which is pretty much what you would expect from Justin following on from Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds. But again, this isn't immediately obvious. It just...is.

The 20 / 20 experience draws more on the soulful and organic sounds of Justified than the electro driven FutureSex/LoveSounds and is much more consistent for it. The conscious effort for Justin's album to be seen as avant garde is still there, it's just more organic in its approach. Although it comes at the risk of not featuring a song which is as instantly memorable and pop referential as "SexyBack", "My love" or "Summer love". And also comes at the risk of being his least memorable album as a whole.

Whilst The 20/20 experience is produced to near perfection and doesn't feature a single flat out terrible song, very few songs stick long after you've listened to them. There is no one song on this album which will reside within your subconscious and refuse to leave in the same way "Like I love you", "Cry me a river", "Rock your body" or "SexyBack" have done. In terms of musical integrity, the album is as solid as Justin's work has ever been. But in a sound-scape so focused on byte sized, easily tangible songs, The 20/20 experience's 8 minute track lengths, soft punching hooks may go over a lot of heads. This isn't to say the album isn't good. Aurually it's a treat which jumps around definable era's within music.

"Pusher love girl", "Suit & tie" and "That girl" are throwbacks to 60's Motown. "Suit & tie" ranks as one of the albums' worst offerings. But "Pusher love girl" is wonderfully soulful and serves up one of Timbaland's most stanky and richly produced soul cuts since Brandy's "Where is she 2 U". "That girl" feels like a watered down version of "Pusher love girl" to the point that I don't see the point in it. It's not a shit song - it just feels redundant when "Pusher love girl" is everything this song is in a bigger and better form.

The era of funk is visited for "Let the groove get in" - which sees Justin reach for Gloria Estefan's wig for the first 5 minutes of the song and then dance on Michael Jackson's for the last 2. It's nice to hear a song which embeds the hot blooded Latin / Havana pop style faithfully without putting an electro, bastardized spin on it; even if the song in the long run is wholly forgettable.

The seductiveness of the 80's comes through with "Strawberry bubblegum". If I were to describe this song in 2 words they'd be 'fucking magic'. Sharp drums, ethereal synths, smooth vocals and cluster of channel hopping Hey's make this song the smoothest on the album and rank it as near perfection. Even the awful lyrics aren't enough to detract from the magic of this song. And just when my inner 80's child is getting it in with the shuffle and the running man, the song switches into 3 minutes of what sounds like a lost interlude from Songs in the key of life. The power balladry of the 80's comes in the form of "Mirrors", which wreaks of "Cry me a river" and "What goes around (Comes around)" - but without the soul torn lyrics . It's overly sappy lyrically, but the production is nice. It should have closed the album and would have done so perfectly if it weren't for the Coldplay / Sigur Rós rip off "Blue ocean floor". Ethereally beautiful, but out of place and too consciously trying to prove a point.

Sounds of the 00's come through with "Don't hall the wall", bringing back the Arabian chants and Indian percussion which Timbaland was trotting out with regularity at the turn of the century on the cusp of the Desi boom. "Don't hold the wall" is Justin's 2013 equivalent of Justified's "Oh no (What you got)" in a much more slower and seductive form. The song speeds up towards the end ditching the Middle eastern vibes for a much more harder edged bounce which is a complete Ctrl + C job of Timbaland's mobile underground remix of Madonna's "4 minutes". "Tunnel vision" is throwback Timbo, as he hearkens back to his signature sound which made Ginuwine, Aaliyah, Missy Elliott and Timbaland himself an oft mentioned name within Hip-hop and R&B. Timbo was veering so far from his classic sound that a n***a couldn't see it in the rear view and baby girl was turning in her grave. So it's nice to know Timbaland remembers it, that he can still pull it off, whilst also showcasing that his classic sound is timeless and undefinable.

Timbaland's output between 2006 and 2012 has been an utter mess. Turning in productions which were far from exhibiting the genius we'd witnessed from the late 90's up until the release of FutureSex/LoveSounds. Whilst The 20 / 20 experience will restore faith in those who felt Timbaland had lost it, his work here is very safe, calculated and wholly self referential. You can hear a conscious effort was made to be overly careful and every Timbo trick and cliché is thrown into this album. It makes for solid and consistent set, but it's not fresh and it's far from new.

The 20 / 20 experience is a nice listen. But once you begin to strip away the sonics of Timbo and co., you realize that the lyrics to some of the songs aren't that great. In fact, they are flat out awful. The hooks and refrains are catchy enough. But the verses languish and feel as though Justin is just buying time with elementary rhymes until the chorus. The song topics begin to wane after so long because this entire album is essentially 9 tracks about falling in love and 2 about dancing. It's nice that Justin is so in love and is no longer singing out the emotional scars of his relationship with Britney, but at age 32 and having enjoyed the life of a successful boy band member, a pretty successful actor and now a married man, Justin should be saying a heck of a lot more than 'I love you. You are amazing. C'mon girl, let's dance'. The musical soundscape of each of these endeavours is varied save for the coupling of "Pusher love girl" and "That girl". But lyrically Justin is singing about the same thing with different metaphors. He likens love to a drug. He likens his better half to looking in a mirror. He likens sex to flying in a spaceship. He refers to pussy as bubble gum and his dick as a lollipop. He likens finding his perfect girl to shooting on a film set. The list sounds much more creative and varied when jotted down than it is when you are listening to the songs. This also isn't helped by the song lengths. FutureSex/LoveSounds saw Justin occasionally clock songs in at 7 to 8 minutes, but here he does the same on near enough every track. Where his predecessors 8 minute tracks were essentially 2 different songs musically, here every track is an extended mix with some outstaying their welcomes. On some songs you relish in the extended length and get sucked into the vibe. Where-as on others you become glaringly aware that the song should have ended 2 minutes ago and that n***a's were on that copy and paste. But its a pretty cool compromise for the (regular edition of the) album only featuring 10 songs.

The 20 / 20 experience on one hand feels as though it's trying to hard, whilst on the other hand feels as though it's not trying hard enough. The production is pin-pointed to perfection and Justin had a clear focus with this album. But that sense of spontaneity and freshness you got with Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds just isn't here.

Still... Justin goes a long ways to prove that nothing he's done up to this point is a fluke and with a 15+ year career and 3 successful solo albums under his belt, he's already exceeded the career sell by date we'd stamped on him when he was rolling underneath shutters and running from dogs in "Bye bye bye". 

*Throws a copy of The 20/20 experience at Usher* N***a, you should be ashamed of yo'self.



Album highlights:
■ Pusher love girl
■ Don't hold the wall
■ Strawberry bubblegum ★ J's fave
■ Tunnel vision
■ Mirrors