Album Review: Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds (Deluxe Edition)

To commemorate the success he had with the album, Justin Timberlake has rereleased his hit album FutureSex/LoveSounds. So, for this week, I am going to take a look back at 2006 by reviewing one of its most successful albums. FutureSex/LoveSounds has spawned an amazing six singles to mainstream radio, aswell as two of them getting a suprising mass amount of play at Urban stations. And the deluxe edition is even better!!

From the first moment your hear FutureSex/LoveSound (the first track on the album) to Sexy Ladies (Remix) (the last one), you can hear great production on this album. Whether it's from the trio of Timberlake, Timbaland, and Nate Hills, Will.I.Am, or Rick Rubin, the production on this album is outstanding. The beats are amazing ear candy in my opinion. They go from extremely technical-sounding (Sexy Ladies, My Love, Summer Love) to smooth (What Goes Around........Comes Around [Interlude], Until the End Of Time, Set the Mood Interlude, [Another Song] All Over Again). One thing I noticed about the songs is that some of them (ex. Summer Love/Set the Mood Prelude) are split into two parts, one being a prelude or interlude and the other being the actual song. I think that this is in spirit of the title being split into two parts by a slash mark. The guest spots on the album also help a bit. Timbaland, T.I., 50 Cent, and Three 6 Mafia put a little more edge into their album with their rapping, aswell as their random appearances in songs in the case of Timbo. On the other hand, Beyonce puts a little more R&B flavor into Justin's current hit, Until the End of Time and Will.I.Am puts more of a hip-hop flavor onto the song he produced, Damn Girl. The one thing that I really dislike about the album is that pretty much all of the songs are about love and sex, with the exception of Losing My Way (in which Justin talks about an addiction to crack cocaine and asks if anyone out there understands him and hears him). But what can you expect from an album titled FutureSex/LoveSounds?

My favorite two tracks on the album are My Love and What Goes Around....../Comes Around Interlude. I like My Love for the amazing production on it, aswell as the T.I. guest spot. Justin is also taking his voice to the limits on this song, which I really admire. I especially like What goes Around because it is essentially a story in one song! The "story" talks about how when the girl Justin like rejects a relationship with Justin, it will all come back around at her and that it isn't fair. As for the argument on which is better, out of the regular Until the End of Time and its remix, I would say that Beyonce beats Justin on his own song. The remix is truly an amazing combination, with the princess of R&B and the prince of Pop (even though he really wants his music to be titled R&B music, not Pop). Plus, their voices harmonize so great.

The production of this album, along with the smoothness and versatility of Justin's voice, make FutureSex/LoveSounds a great album in my opinion.

Grade: A-: Spectacular production, amazing singing and rapping. The only drawback was the unoriginality of the tracks.
Track to Get: My Love, What Goes Around.../...Comes Back Around Interlude, Until the End of Time (duet with Beyonce)