Justin Timberlake gets 'personal
Pop superstar Justin Timberlake on Tuesday announced his first album in nearly five years, promising more “personal” songwriting inspired by his home and family.
The 36-year-old singer and actor said that Man of the Woods, his fifth solo studio album, will come out on February 2 – two days before he headlines entertainment during the Super Bowl, generally the most watched television event of the year in the US.
Timberlake unveiled the album with a short video on social media that, true to the album’s title, shows him walking reflectively in scenes of nature from a snowy forest to a sunny corn field.
“This album is really inspired by my son, my wife, my family, but – more so than any other album I’ve ever written – where I’m from,” Timberlake says in the video. “And it’s personal.” Timberlake – who had a son in 2015 with his wife, actress Jessica Biel – grew up near Memphis, Tennessee, one of the capitals of blues and soul music as well as ruralrooted country.
The video features snippets of acoustic guitar, hinting perhaps at a more somber sound for the album, but closes with Timberlake in the studio with all-star pop producer Pharrell Williams.
Timberlake, one of the top-selling artists of the 21st century both as a solo artist and with boy band NSYNC, rose to fame with an electronic pop sound before finding a new voice by bringing in R&B, notably on his 2006 album FutureSex/LoveSounds.
Timberlake has been offering hints of his upcoming album for years. In a 2016 interview with the BBC, Timberlake declined to describe it as a country album but acknowledged the influence.
“I really did grow up in a place in America where I was like two hours from the country music capital of the world [Nashville], home of the blues, birthplace of American rock’n’roll,” he said.
Timberlake last released full albums in 2013, putting out The 20/20 Experience and The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 in quick succession.
Even without albums, Timberlake has kept putting out music, scoring a mega-hit in 2016 with “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” a giddy summer song that appeared in the animated film Trolls.
But Timberlake has focused increasingly on acting rather than music in the past several years, most recently starring as a bookish and seductive lifeguard in Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel.