Saturday, January 05, 2008

#20 Justin Timberlake, "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around"



Hey girl, is he everything you wanted in a man?
You know I gave you the world
You had me in the palm of your hand

I think I've generally taken a pretty anti-Justin Timberlake stance on this blog and in general, and I usually try not to to make too big a deal of being "anti" a whole artist, preferring to criticize people who I usually like or see some sort of potential (even if mainly in the past) in (there are some exceptions...one of which we'll be dealing with soon). The arguably disturbing video may not have made Justin seem any more likable to me, but I couldn't help it: when this song became a single, I fell in love. Part of that has to do with the "What Goes Around" part, which makes up the song's main section; lyrically, it may sound concerned with retribution, but it's not particularly aggressive or actively vengeful--it sounds more like karma, and if I could enjoy the lyrically (and, in a way, musically) similar "360" by Josh Hoge, I can hardly hold that against "What Goes Around..." It's sad, but beautiful, and it has this perfect sing-along quality that drew me in against my will. What seals the deal, though, is the interlude or "outro," "...Comes Around," where the kind of Middle Eastern instrumentation in "What Goes Around" is replaced by more producer-oriented noises and synths and the tempo picks up. Justin's attitude changes, too; he becomes a lot less sad and a lot more mocking, laughing at and enjoying his ex's suffering. It's fantastic, and it's a real shame that most radio listeners weren't able to hear it.

Find it on: FutureSex/LoveSounds

4 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

YOu know what? (if you said "no" and "i don't really care either" I would still carry on :P ) i really like FSLS as a cohesive piece of work rather than songs individually. I got a lot of enjoyment out if last year but other than sexy/back no one song stood out more than others for me. That's not a bad thing they were all very good. Sometimes i wonder if i am more attracted to Justin the good dresser hot body dude than I am to the music :P But hey that's just me. PS isn't it hard to rank songs the higher you get? My number 20 could have been number 10 and vice versa it was that close...Plus time makes a difference! Songs from november seemed more exciting and fresh than songs from say, April. I'm waffling!

D'luv said...

I agree wholeheartedly about this being the best moment on Future, etc. etc. etc. sounds etc.

My fave part is the end "I thought I told ya - hey-ay"...

Anonymous said...

Possibly my fave JT song to date and definitely the best track on FS/LS!

Also what a great video!! :)

Poster Girl said...

I don't know that I ever gave it a fair chance as a cohesive album--I've kind of toyed with doing that at some point. You're so right about ranking, though! It's pretty much arbitrary at this point, and the whole when the song came out thing makes it even more so.

It easily is for me! I did have a "revelation" (well behind most people) one day about how good "My Love" is as well.

That's pretty much where I am about the song, too! It's great.