The 20/20 Experience

The 20/20 Experience
Justin Timberlake studio album
Publication (s)	15 March 2013
admission	June 2012
Label (s)	RCA Records
Format (s)	CD • Music download • Record
Genre (s)	Pop • R&B
Title (number)	10 + 2
running time	70:02
production	Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon • Rob Knox • The Tennessee Kids • Timbaland • Justin Timberlake
Studio (s)	Larrabee Studio ( Hollywood , California )
chronology Futuresex / Lovesounds (2006) The 20/20 Experience The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 (2013)
Single releases January 15, 2013 Suit & Tie February 11, 2013 Mirrors 14th of June 2013 Tunnel vision

The 20/20 Experience is the third studio album by American singer Justin Timberlake . It was released on March 15, 2013 on RCA Records as the first part of a two-part project. On September 27th, the successor The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 was published.

Emergence

After the commercially successful album FutureSex / LoveSounds , it was seven years before Timberlake presented the successor. In the meantime he worked as an actor and contributed to some songs by other artists such as Madonna, Rihanna or TI Features.

In 2010 Timberlake started talking to his manager Johnny Wright about a new album. At first Timberlake did not want to return to music and continue to concentrate on his film career, but in June 2012 he had worked out new songs with Timbaland and the album was already finished in July 2012. The recordings took place within just four weeks at Larrabee Studios ( Hollywood ), Timberlake was pressed for time because of the planned shooting of scenes for Runner Runner .

Wright described it as a "fast record". Regarding the collaboration between Timberlake and Timbaland, he said: "when those two come together there's a lot of magic that happens." ( "If these two work together, magical things happen.") In Suit and Tie had Jay-Z as the only guest singer on the whole album with.

The album was initially due to be released in October 2012, although the date was postponed to March 2013 due to the singer's wedding with Jessica Biel .

Another LP was released on September 27, 2013 to complete the 20/20 experience. The first single on the new album is called "Take Back The Night". The Deluxe Edition of the album contains 13 songs.

promotion

In September, Justin Timberlake and his manager Wright met with the Chairs of RCA Records , Peter Edge and Tom Corson, to discuss market strategy for the first time. On January 10, a teaser called I'm Ready was uploaded to Youtube in which Timberlake explains his plans for music and can be seen in a music studio. Four days later the first single Suit & Tie was released , for which a music video shot by director David Fincher was released on January 25th . The song was in the top 10 in 15 countries. He sang Suit & Tie live in his appearances at the Grammy Awards and the comedy show Saturday Night Live . On February 6, the album's cover and track list were released. The second single that was released on February 11th was Mirrors , which was featured in Wetten, dass ...? played in Friedrichshafen and the Brit Awards . The series of appearances at high profile events also included his first solo live appearance in five years at the Super Bowl party in New Orleans, where he presented the two songs Pusher Love Girl and That Girl .

As of March 11th, the album could be streamed in full on iTunes .

criticism

Professional reviews
Average rating
source	rating
Metacritic	75%
More reviews
source	rating
Rolling Stone
Allmusic
The Telegraph
The Observer
The Guardian
The Independent
Billboard
PopMatters
Spin
NME
According to
Disk tests
CD ratings
CDStarts

The album called mainly produced positive reactions on the website Metacritic .com album received a generally welcomed an average rating of 75 out of 100 points based on 39 reviews English.

In Spin magazine's list of the 50 best albums of the year , the album was ranked 32nd, Complex Music ranked it 21st.

Tobias Rapp from the news magazine Der Spiegel praises Timberlake's style as elegant and describes him as an entertainer, even drawing parallels to Frank Sinatra . Although he has not reinvented himself, he is doing what he does best with the album.

“The whole album shines with effortless elegance and sensuality. Ten songs of psychedelic bliss, modern pop, in which string arrangements keep the tension, carried by a melodious sound that can probably only be achieved in the most expensive studios. It takes a while to understand what the singer is really getting at. 'The 20/20 Experience' is the record with which Justin Timberlake says: I can become the Frank Sinatra of the 21st century. "

- Extract from the review of the mirror

The online edition of the Spiegel in the person of Andreas Borcholte, on the other hand, positively emphasizes the sound, which is oriented towards Motown times, but questions the quality of many of the lyrics and writes that the elements that should make the album exciting tend to lead to the opposite. The two songs Let the Groove Getin and Mirrors are praised .

“The expectations were high when Timberlake announced a follow-up to its in many ways terrific second album" Futuresex / Lovesounds ". And now that "The 20/20 Experience" can finally be heard, one would like to say: It was worth the wait. It also has. But at the same time the feeling remains that nobody would have needed this record. […] Since most of the new songs are structured as opulently as "Strawberry Bubblegum", seven or eight minutes with a change of style or a break towards the end, boredom quickly spreads with all the technical brilliance and finesse of the production. [...] Of course this is not bad, but very good, well thought-out, sometimes even touching music. "

- Extract from the review by Spiegel Online

An article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung deals more with the phenomenon of the “superstar” and why the album is so well received.

“The record doesn't actually knock anyone off their feet, but everyone tries hard to find it somehow terrific. [...] Everything ripples a little too solidly, like the first single "Suit & Tie". [...] But anyone who has seen Timberlake's recent appearances on the late night show by Jimmy Fallon, on Saturday Night Life or on the BBC with Jonathan Ross, was of course still entranced by this lovable, gifted entertainer. "

- Extract from the review of the Süddeutsche Zeitung

Jakob Biazza from Focus , who describes Justin Timberlake as perhaps the only current male superstar, describes something similar . The album is not a masterpiece, but everyone wants to like it. He cites the human “basic need for elegance” as the reason.

Commercial win

The album reached number 1 on the album charts in Germany , Great Britain , the USA , Switzerland and many other countries on different continents, and in Austria it reached number 2.

In the US, it went straight to number 1 with 968,000 copies sold, making it the strongest first week of sales of the year. The 20/20 Experience was able to stay at the top of the chart for three weeks and was already awarded double platinum on April 22nd. In Great Britain, too, it had the most successful sales start of the year to date, with over 100,000 sales in the first week. In Germany, The 20/20 Experience was awarded the Golden Record .

The album set a worldwide record when it was downloaded 580,000 times from the iTunes Store in the first week .

With 3.6 million units sold, the longplayer took third place among the world's most successful albums in 2013, behind Midnight Memories by One Direction and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 by Eminem .

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	platinum	70,000
Germany (BVMI)	gold	100,000
Ireland (IRMA)	gold	7,500
Canada (MC)	2 × platinum	160,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	gold	7,500
Netherlands (NVPI)	gold	40,000
Norway (IFPI)	gold	5,000
Poland (ZPAV)	platinum	20,000
Portugal (AFP)	gold	10,000
Sweden (IFPI)	gold	20,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	gold	15,000
United States (RIAA)	2 × platinum	2,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	platinum	300,000
All in all	9 × gold 6 × platinum	2,720,000

Main article: Justin Timberlake / Music Sales Awards

Track list

1. Pusher Love Girl - 8:03 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley , Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
2. Suit & Tie (feat. Jay-Z) - 5:27 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy, Shawn Carter , Terrence Stubbs, Johnny Wilson, Charles Still)
3. Don't Hold the Wall - 7:11 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
4. Strawberry Bubblegum - 8:00 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
5. Tunnel Vision - 6:47 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
6. Spaceship Coupe - 7:18 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
7. That Girl - 4:47 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy, Noel Williams)
8. Let the Groove Get In - 7:12 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
9. Mirrors - 8:05 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)
10. Blue Ocean Floor - 7:22 (Justin Timberlake, Timothy Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy)

Deluxe edition

1. Dress On - 4:39 (Justin Timberlake, James Fauntleroy, Robin Tadross)
2. Body Count - 4:42 (Justin Timberlake, James Fauntleroy, Robin Tadross)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ billboard.com
2. ↑ amazon.de
3. ↑ Jem Aswad, Ed Christman and Matt Diehl: Justin Timberlake's Long Road to 'The 20/20 Experience': Timeline Billboard, March 18, 2013; Retrieved October 6, 2013
4. ^ The 20/20 Experience Reviews Metacritic; Retrieved September 26, 2013
5. ^ Critic Reviews for The 20/20 Experience Metacritic; Retrieved October 3, 2013
6. ↑ SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2013 Spin, December 2, 2013; Retrieved December 5, 2013
7. ↑ The Best Albums of 2013 (So Far) complex.com; Retrieved December 5, 2013
8. ↑ Tobias Rapp : Craftsman . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2013 ( online ). >
9. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Abgehört: The most important CDs of the week . Spiegel Online , March 19, 2013; Retrieved October 4, 2013
10. ↑ Jens-Christian Rabe: New album by Justin Timberlake: Verblüffend fleet-footed Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 21, 2013; Retrieved October 4, 2013
11. ↑ Jakob Biazza: Most Intimate Insights on his Album “The 20/20 Experience” Focus , March 23, 2013; Retrieved October 4, 2013
12. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Official: Justin Timberlake's '20 / 20 Experience 'Sells 968,000, Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Billboard , March 26, 2013; Retrieved October 4, 2013
13. ↑ Lauren Kreisler: Justin Timberlake zooms straight to the top with The 20/20 Experience Officialcharts, March 24, 2013; Retrieved October 4, 2013
14. ^ Lewis Corner: Justin Timberlake breaks worldwide iTunes record with new album Digital Spy , March 28, 2013; Retrieved October 5, 2013
15. ↑ IFPI Digital Music Report 2014 (PDF) ifpi.org; Retrieved October 3, 2014