He's A Big Boy Now (Justified - Justin Timberlake)

Member Name: XICripZ

Product:	Justified - Justin Timberlake
Date:	06/05/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of big tunes

Disadvantages: Slower tracks are a littel weaker

"Justified" came out in 2002, and was the debut solo album from former *NSync member, Justin Timberlake. This album was the making of a star in the R&B world as he ditched his Pop past in order to pursuit a solo career which allows him to highlight his individual strengths and interests beyond the fabricated past with the members of the boyband.

1. "Senorita"

To start the album, you have him drop us into one of the big singles from the album as he works alongside The Neptunes on a Latin-inspired song which has him do a slow, and seductive one for the girls to just warm things up, and set you up for later material on this. It is a big one, and it really stands out with how it showcases the potential in his vocals form the get-go.

**Five Stars**

2. "Like I Love You"

This was his debut solo single, and it showed exactly how much potential he had as he moved on from his boyband past and was accompanied by both The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) for the production, as well as The Clipse who rap on this. This combination of things pushes him right into the Hip Hop-inspired R&B world, which has been the direction of the genre since around this time.

**Five Stars**

3. "What You Got"

You find him going right into the sounds of Timbo on this one and Timbaland's production techniques of implementing some funky percussion, and Asian-style woodwind is carried through onto this song, and it allows the artist to get into a lively club song to get you even more in the mood to just get down with him as he seems to build up in confidence and just break out. Here it is all based in a club as he approaches a girl after seeing her watching him throughout the night.

**Four Stars**

4. "Take It From Here"

On this one you see a clear change in him as he appears to have moved on from his past, and is able to perform a song where he seemingly takes influences from the slow jam years of the late eighties and early nineties, and brings in acoustics to hint on his past, but make sure that it is clearly based in this new persona which he has created through this music.

**Four Stars**

5. "Cry Me A River"

Although this one became annoying due to its excessive airplay around the time, it is a big one, and it deserved most f the attention it received (it was slightly overrated), and it marks the start of a great relationship between JT and Timbaland as they come together to do a slow-paced song which has him deal with the split with Britney Spears.

**Four Stars**

6. "Rock Your Body"

This dropped as the third single to the album, and it had him show a different side of him, a as he chose to distance himself from the material of "Cry Me A River", and onto more up-beat work as he goes on top of what appears to be some Disco-based foundations, from which he constructs a modern groove from. It is a big one by him, and gets him letting loose to show a energetic side of him.

**Five Stars**

7. "Nothin' Else"
This one brings out even more with him, and his work with The Neptunes as it tests their limitations in the diversity which they are able to present through their music and in this case it seems as though they were able to nail another genre and fuse it with their foundations in R&B and Hip Hop as Jazz is brought in, and JT effectively uses this icy sound to boost his vocals.

**Four Stars**

8. "Last Night"

The production in this one is absolutely typical of The Neptunes with its spacey, futuristic synth, which drives the tune and motivates the artist as he works off the liveliness of this, the gentles bell, and the hard kickdrums to just blaze through with lots of energy and speak of his enjoyment of the night which he spent with a girl; a scene he wishes to recreate sometime in the future with her.

**Five Stars**

9. "Still On The Brain"

Here you have him doing a song which seems to take the earlier slow jam-styled song a stage further in what it does as you find him on some retro-sounding synthesizers, and it brings you much more into that homey-feeling material of the past to a greater degree than before, but I felt that it was a little harder to accept the vocals from him as you could with the one before, as the soothing beats contrast from the sharp, high-pitch of his voice.

**Three Stars**

10. "Take Me Now"

The Funk which greats you at the start of this one just knocks you back and forces you to take notice of the thing as it indicates the direction that he will take for this one, and he didn't disappoint with the results of it as you find him doing a killer collaboration with Janet Jackson on heavy production from the duo of Scott Storch and Timbaland. It really stands out, and it surprised me as it wasn't used as a single despite its high quality.

**Five Stars**

11. "Right For Me"

Here you have Timbaland take over the thing, and with this, just as The Neptunes did by bringing on their rapping signees, Timbo chooses Bubba Sparxxx to offer a short flow to accompany Justin as he goes on this one, and as Timbaland did so well with the way he brought back even more of the things from earlier, but this time with more of it based around vocal percussion, as well as the more 'real' stuff.

12. "Let's Take A Ride"

The opening melodies on this one are enough to excite you to a stage where you simply do no care what he does with the rest of the thing, and it just happens that he kills off the rest of the thing as he is given some funky backing to lead him into the song and just float about with his girl in a dreamlike state (which The Neptunes are great at creating).

**Four Stars**

13. "Never Again"

To end he album off, he seems to do it in the worst way possible, as I see it as he returns to his old boyband days, in even the earliest years of *NSync as he does a little ballad, and t really put me off, because it simply isn't my thing as he has it all written by Brian McKnight, and has this overcome him, and force him into a song which contrasts so greatly from the urban sound in the rest of it.

**One Star**

This is a great album from Justin, and a great ay to kick off his career as a solo artist as it shows how versatile he is as an artists, and his capabilities beyond just the typical R&B of the time as he work with some of the most ahead-of-the-time producers which the game has to offer (Timbaland and The Neptunes), and they give him what he needs to fill this release out with bangers. Despite losing it a little with the slower ones, the better ones clearly dominate.

Summary: Justin Timberlake's debut solo album