The 20/20 Experience is the third studio album by American singer Justin Timberlake. It was released on March 15, 2013, through RCA Records, as the follow-up to his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006). An R&B and neo soul album with elements of soul music, its lyrics discuss romance and sex. Production was handled by Timbaland, Timberlake—who was also the executive producer—and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, with Rob Knox contributing to the album's deluxe edition. The 20/20 Experience is considered to be the first half of a project, and in September 2013, it was supplemented by Timberlake's fourth studio album, The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2.
The 20/20 Experience was generally positively reviewed by critics, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, and topped the album charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. It was certified 2× platinum in Canada, Poland, Brazil, New Zealand, and the United States, platinum in Australia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, and gold in Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Three songs from The 20/20 Experience have been released as singles. Its lead single, "Suit & Tie", peaked in the top five in several countries and reached number three in the US. The album's second single, "Mirrors", reached number one in the UK and number two in the US. Its third and final single, "Tunnel Vision", reached number sixty-one in the UK and number eleven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Timberlake embarked on the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour with Jay-Z and The 20/20 Experience World Tour. The album was later included as part of the compilation The 20/20 Experience – The Complete Experience, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. Additionally, "Suit & Tie" and "Pusher Love Girl" won Grammy Awards for Best Music Video and Best R&B Song, respectively.
Background In September 2006, Timberlake released his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album spawned six singles, including the US number-one singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around". After ending a worldwide concert tour to support the album in 2007, Timberlake took a break from his music career to focus on acting, with occasional guest appearances on singles by Madonna, T.I., Jamie Foxx, Timbaland, and Esmée Denters.
Development and title In 2010, Timberlake's music manager, Johnny Wright, approached him to discuss the possibility of Timberlake returning to his music career and the difficulties of releasing his future material, because according to Wright: "a lot of the physical record sellers were gone, by the time they've got music again they needed to think about different ways to deliver it". Wright proposed a promotion based on a software application or releasing a new song each month. Timberlake, however, was not interested in returning to music and he continued to focus on his film career. In late May or early June of 2012, Timberlake invited Wright to dinner and said he had spent the previous two nights in a studio with Timbaland working on new material. Wright was shocked by the announcement, and the two began planning to promote and release the album. They agreed on a gap of seven or eight weeks between the singles and the album. Wright told Billboard "such a short window" demanded "a big impact".
In August 2012, producer Jim Beanz reported Timberlake had started work on his new music project. Shortly after the announcement, Timberlake's publicist denied plans for a new album, stating Timberlake was working on Timbaland's upcoming project, Shock Value III. Wright stated although Timbaland's project involved artists who were Timberlake's friends, keeping it a secret was difficult, so they used codenames. Timberlake's project was originally planned for release in October 2012, but it was postponed because of his wedding to actress Jessica Biel. During an interview with American radio and television host Ryan Seacrest, Timberlake explained the meaning of the album's title, saying: "It more or less came out of: I was playing some of the stuff for my friends and they would come in and out of the studio and I'd say, 'What do you think of this?' And my best friend said, 'This is music that you can see,' and for some reason that stuck with me".
Recording
The 20/20 Experience was produced over 20 days. Recording sessions for The 20/20 Experience began in late May or early June 2012, and concluded in July that year. The album was recorded at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood, EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, and Jungle City Studios in New York City. Of Timbaland's participation, Wright said: "[Their] relationship is like a brotherhood; they're just so comfortable with each other – not only as musical friends but as personal friends ... that you can get things done in a short period of time. Had [the Ben Affleck movie Runner Runner] not happened, we might have actually set up and put the album out sooner". After the recording was finished, Timberlake and Wright, with M2M Construction, began "formulating plans for how to release the music". Timberlake, then most of the band, used JH Audio in-ear monitoring systems.
Composition According to Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience "goes a lot of different directions. I think there's probably a little bit of what was reminiscent on the first album and then a little bit of what's reminiscent of the second album, and then some new stuff." While working on the album, Timberlake thought: "If Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin can do 10-minute songs and Queen can do 10-minute songs then why can't we? We'll figure out the radio edits later."
The 20/20 Experience is a neo soul album that was partly inspired by the expansive song structures of 1960s and 1970s rock. The songs average seven minutes in length, and are characterized by vamps, abrupt key changes, and unexpected rhythms and harmonies. Music journalist Jody Rosen noted an emphasis on "rhythm and flow" rather than catchiness, and said it is "not quite a pop album" because its "sense of musical space-time is more elastic and sprawling than anything on the radio". The album's music incorporates samples of piano, distorted voices, and buzzing electronic sounds with elements of soul music, including resonant voiceovers, lush string and horn arrangements, high-pitched guitar solos, and squelching analog synthesizers. Steven Hyden said the album has "traditionalist tendencies", and Simon Price wrote that producers Timbaland and J-Roc merged 1970s influences with futuristic sounds: "the Chi-Lites in orbit, the Isley Brothers gone intergalactic, and so on". Price also compared the production on the album to Quincy Jones's production on Michael Jackson's 1979 album Off the Wall.
The album's lyrics deal mostly with romance. The songs use different metaphors for sex, including drugs on "Pusher Love Girl", candy on "Strawberry Bubblegum", and outer space on "Spaceship Coupe". Music critic Ken Tucker wrote that each song portrays Timberlake as a "starry-eyed romantic, bedazzled by a woman upon whom he cannot heap enough compliments, come-ons and seductive playfulness".
Singles "Suit & Tie", featuring rapper Jay-Z, was released as The 20/20 Experience lead single on January 14, 2013. It is a mid-tempo, R&B, and soul song that, according to Melinda Newman of HitFix, "floats along" like a song from the American band The Whispers. The music video for "Suit & Tie" was filmed on January 25, 2013, and released on February 14 the same year. It was directed by David Fincher, who directed The Social Network (2010), in which Timberlake starred. "Suit & Tie" was a commercial success, reaching the top ten in 15 countries. It reached number three on both the UK singles chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.
"Mirrors" was released as the album's second single on February 11, 2013, following Timberlake's performance at the 2013 Grammy Awards. The single topped the UK singles chart and reached the top five in Denmark, Ireland, Germany, South Korea, and Switzerland. It peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. "Tunnel Vision" was released as the third and final single from the album on June 14, 2013. The music video was released on July 3, 2013. It reached number sixty-one on the UK singles chart and number eleven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
Promotion
In September 2012, Timberlake and Wright met with RCA Records heads Peter Edge and Tom Corson to "plot release strategies for the album". In November that year, Wright and RCA Records began discussions with Target and other corporations to plan marketing for the album. Timberlake, part-owner of the social media site Myspace, put "Suit & Tie" on the splash page with a chance to stream or download the song in return for joining the site or signing in during its relaunch in January 2013. Timberlake and Jay-Z performed "Suit & Tie" at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013. They performed the song again during Timberlake's hosting of Saturday Night Live on March 9, 2013. Timberlake debuted the live performance of the second single, "Mirrors", at the Brit Awards 2013 ceremony at The O2 Arena, London, on February 20, 2013. He sang two songs from the album, "Pusher Love Girl" and "That Girl", during the Super Bowl XLVII weekend.
Timberlake performed a preview concert at Roseland Ballroom on May 5, 2013. He held a one-off concert in Dublin, Ireland at Phoenix Park on July 10, 2013. On February 22, 2013, it was announced Timberlake and Jay-Z would embark on the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour, a co-headlining series of concerts. He headlined the 2013 Yahoo Wireless Festival at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, for two of the festival's three nights; July 12, where he headlined alone and July 14, where he headlined with Jay-Z. It served as a preview for the Legends of the Summer Tour, which began on July 17 in Toronto, Ontario.
To further promote the album, Timberlake announced on May 5, 2013, that he would embark on The 20/20 Experience World Tour, his second global concert tour that was promoted primarily by AEG Live. The tour debuted on October 31, 2013, in Montreal, two months after the Legends of the Summer Tour concluded. Twenty-two additional North American dates were announced, ending on February 10, 2014, in Omaha, Nebraska. Several dates were made available for pre-sale for members of The Tennessee Kids, Timberlake's official fan club. According to Timberlake's official website, additional unannounced dates in Europe, South America, and Australia would follow. Timberlake headlined the iTunes Festival in September 2013.
Critical reception
The 20/20 Experience received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 39 reviews. Sputnikmusic's Sobhi Youssef called it "expertly" written and produced, and cited it as a "profound manifestation" of recent innovations in R&B. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times found its elaborate structures ambitious in the tradition of Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Michael Jackson. Andy Gill of The Independent called it "diversely enjoyable" and viewed Timbaland's production as solid, albeit not innovative. Jody Rosen, writing for Rolling Stone, said although The 20/20 Experience lacks songs as immediate as Timberlake's previous hits, the album's multidimensional music eventually "sinks its teeth in, even on the wooziest songs". Jordan Sargent of Spin called it a "sonic wonder" and said the songs are ingenious enough to justify their lengths.