Justin Timberlake Relies on Past Sex and Love Sounds on the Middling ‘Everything I Thought It Was’: Album Review

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Justin Timberlake‘s sixth album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” arrives in a cultural landscape far different than his previous ones.

For the better part of his solo career, he has consistently defied gravity as both an album and singles artist. At his best, he managed to craft complete artistic visions so powerfully focused that the singles from them felt like events of their own: “Rock Your Body” and “Cry Me a River” validated the duality of 2002’s “Justified,” featuring split production from Timbaland and the Neptunes; “SexyBack” and “My Love” glistened with the electronic flourishes that fused the sprawling “FutureSex/LoveSounds”; “Suit & Tie” and “Mirrors” matched the grandiosity of “The 20/20 Experience” (at least, for the first of the two-part project).

Something shifted with 2018’s “Man of the Woods” (to put it mildly), a project presented as a callback to Americana and folk, or even country, all wrapped up in a flannel button-down.

But with the exception of a handful of songs co-penned with Chris Stapleton and a few twangs thrown in for good measure, “Woods” doubled down on what Timberlake has continuously embraced: R&B in lockstep with pop.