"FutureSex/LoveSounds" isn't an easy listen at first. Its crazy layers meld together into a sticky bit of a mess, and the lyrics are mostly standard love stuff. But repeated listening helps the tunes unravel. [11 Sep 2006]
It is this excess of ambition over achievement, as opposed to any real consistency, which makes FutureSex/LoveSounds more of an album than Justified was. Songs which sound puzzlingly self-indulgent in isolation-- most obviously, the smirking, tenuously tuneful first single "SexyBack"-- are cloaked in a compelling intensity and purposefulness when played in succession.
Although the mix of dance beats, pounding basslines and palatable vocals is occasionally marred by mundane R&B tracks like "Until the End of Time," there are far more pop gems than slow jams.
How well do Mr. Timberlake and Timbaland work together? So well that they can make even the world's most irritating percussion instrument, the human beatbox, sound pretty good.
