JT returns to the arena circuit with a new album and an 11-piece band
Justin Timberlake released his sixth solo album on March 15. Titled Everything I Thought It Was, the album has 18 new tracks, including the single Selfish.
Like most of the tunes on the album, the song boasts several writers and producers, including the artist.
Among other buzzworthy tracks are Paradise, featuring Timberlake's former boy band crew 'N Sync. Other guest turns include Fireboy, DML and Tobe Nwigwe. Everything I Thought It Was is the followup to 2018's Man of the Woods. That album debuted in the Billboard Canadian and U.S. Top 200 album chart in top spot.
By comparison, Everything I Thought It Was entered the same chart at 17. The review aggregator site Metacritic delivered a score of 51 based on 17 reviews.
Not exactly a superstar point spread, but maybe Maria Sherman of AP News had it right when assessing the new album as “an enjoyable — if often derivative — reminder of Timberlake at the height of his powers.”
Given that those powers made Timberlake a household name back in the day, there is little doubt that the singer still has a formidable live draw. The Forget Tomorrow World Tour has featured segments with Timberlake's expanded 11-piece band the Tennessee Kids as well as DJ Andrew Hypes. There is no opening act announced for the Vancouver performance.
Here are five things you need to know before JT kicks off his latest road show at Rogers Arena on April 29.
1 Sexyback vs. Selfish
In the smash single Sexyback from 2006's Futuresex/lovesounds, JT delights in giving himself up to his lover: You see these shackles baby/ I'm you're slave/ I'll let you whip me/ If I misbehave.” On Selfish, he is reduced to admitting that his toxic levels of masculine jealousy are, y'know, not so rad: I want every bit of you/ I guess I'm selfish/ It's bad for my mental/ But I can't fight it. Sorry, but that kind of lyrical turn only brings creepy back.
2 'N Sync return?
In long ago times, the boy band battle between the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync was often neck and neck. As time wore on, it became pretty clear that the Backstreet Boys kept finding new fans. Better Place, the first new track from 'N Sync in over two decades, is featured in the 2023 film Trolls Band Together. It kind of vanished in the soundtrack along strictly Jt-fuelled numbers like Brozone's Back and Perfect. Paradise, the new 'N Sync collab from Everything I Thought, doesn't appear in reported set lists for this present tour. Is 'N Sync coming back?
3 Trolls tour?
What is making it into the tour is Can't Stop the Feeling! The big number from 2016's Trolls soundtrack. With its accompanying official video, the feel-good song is about as family-friendly as any Timberlake has released. Maybe a Trolls tour is in the works. What could be better than a product tie-in that dates back to most people's grandparents' childhood with a pitch man from the parents' era on to today's 20-somethings and their children?
4 Man out of the Woods
Timberlake's last album, Man of the Woods, was pumped up as a rootsy turn from the Tennessee-born former Mouseketeer. It turned out to be another platinum-selling release from the singer, but hardly the pre-emptive strike into the exploding world of country music that it could have been. That said, this critic noted that the performance was yet another upbeat, dance-a-thonic production from Timberlake. Fans probably are looking forward to a plaid-free, fake campfire-free experience heavy on suits and style and they appear to be getting just that.
5 JT Docu-something
Actor and filmmaker Fisher Stevens, who recently appeared in both Succession and Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, directed Timberlake in the 2021 Apple+ drama Palmer. He has gone on the record about filming some of the shows on the Everything I Thought It Was tour for a possible movie or docuseries on the singer, given the popularity of music series ranging from Jon Batiste's American Symphony to the Kid Laroi's The Kids Grow Up and films such as the Amy Winehouse story told in Back to Black and Bob Marley: One Love.