Jodie Foster had to go and f-ck with JT’s intended Sunday night domination, you know? Otherwise he would have monopolised all the post-Globes headlines.
Justin Timberlake releases new track -- first time in 6 years! Was it worth the wait? The OJ (Original Justin) is back!
And instead he had to share it with whether or not Jodie Foster came out and is retiring.
Not really sure why he had to choose this weekend. Not really sure if he understands his own standing as a musician. No one cares when Justin Timberlake makes a movie. But the minute Justin Timberlake sings? It’s a big f-cking deal. Justin Timberlake has managed his music career beautifully. He is a titan in the music business. He may be a punk, he may be up his own ass and he may suck his own dick, but we were waiting for this. We were all waiting.
So, you know, releasing it this way -- trying to insert himself into a situation, hijacking a party, the Golden Globes, where he so desperately wants to be invited -- it’s kinda undermining his own importance. Kanye West’s girlfriend pulls moves like this. JT never needs to pull a move like this. Not when he’s singing. The justification of course is that Suit & Tie is now #1 on iTunes and blew up Twitter yesterday. That would have happened midweek too. It would have happened on Christmas Day. It would have happened anyway. Even if you hate him, you cannot deny his musical popularity and significance. What’s so fascinating about celebrity studying however is that no matter their success, no matter how they front, they still, reliably, reveal how insecure they are, always.
Click here to read JT’s open letter about his single and the upcoming album, The 20/20 Experience. He opens with:
I hope this gets to you the right way. It's the only way I know to do it. Some people may criticize me for the last 3 days. But it was fun, right?? Right?!?! Besides, I'd rather speak directly to all of you. And, who can knock me for having a little bit of fun with it?
“Who can knock me for having a little bit of fun with it?”
This is what I mean.
This is the same impulse that compels him to re-tweet compliments. It’s embarrassing to me when a non-famous person re-tweets compliment (as in someone tweeting you like “you’re so pretty!” and you re-tweeting that to everyone who follows you so that they’ll know that someone thought you were pretty, under the guise of gratitude. Please. That’s not gratitude. That’s straight up ego-feed) but when a famous person does it, someone as famous as Justin Timberlake, it’s almost pathetic. Really? But it’s just marketing? Really? You want to tell me that @sweetbaybee22 tweeting at JT about how great his new song is is good marketing? If the sh-t is good, he doesn’t need @sweetbaybee22 to validate his work.
And it is good.
It is very good.
Of course it is.
He’s a great artist (music). He is a great talent (music). And this song, Suit & Tie, is a testament to that. I didn’t love it on first listen. I shrugged on first listen. On the second listen too. But the more you hear it, the more you appreciate it. I’ve now heard it almost 10 times and I’m pretty into it. No, it’s not the slam dunk catchy singalong you might expect from his level of superstar. (Yes, I’ve heard the criticism that it’s similar to Robin Thicke, but to me, it’s better than Robin Thicke. I never took to Robin Thicke anyway.) But, see, that’s actually kinda ...clever. Leave the big pop hits that come strong right out the gate to the kids -- they blow their loads without backup. I’ll give you something more sophisticated to start with, and we can build towards the rest -- that being a complete collection from an evolving artist, one of the most exciting of his generation, who is capable of evolving the sound. There’s no doubt, especially after such a long wait, that the full album will be strong, maybe even his strongest. But given that he had to be so needy about convincing us of it, I’m not sure he believes it. It turns out Justin Timberlake wants to be coddled.
Also...
F-ck me, I wish he would stop talking in air quotes. Like “grapevine”. It’s like the time he said “NOT” as a comeback. Click here if you missed that. Maybe this is the problem. That I keep wanting to believe that Justin Timberlake is cool when, really, he’s not.