Justin Timberlake's "Man Of The Woods"

About

Justin Timberlake's Man Of The Woods refers to the fifth studio album by pop music artist Justin Timberlake. The announcement of the album was joked about online due to the implied dramatic stylistic departure from Timberlake's previous work into a more "earthy, country" sound.

Origin

On December 31st, 2017, Justin Timberlake uploaded a teaser for his album Man of the Woods to YouTube. The video, however, is unlisted, and has only gained over 2,400 views as of January 2nd, 2017 (shown below).

The video features shots of Timberlake in nature and a voiceover of Timberlake saying the album is inspired by "where I'm from." It began spreading online after Timberlake posted the video to his Twitter account on January 2nd, 2018, promising a new single to be released on January 5th.^[1]

Spread

Twitter users responded to the news by commenting on Timberlake's stylistic departure, comparing Timberlake's presentation to other artists. For example, Twitter user @festivating^[2] compared the presentation to what Lady Gaga's Joanne, an album in which she embraced more Americana roots (shown below, left). Music blog Consequence of Sound^[3] posted an article about the announcement noting that several of the clips in the teaser sounded like Bon Iver, who Timberlake had famously parodied on Saturday Night Live.

Others joked about Timberlake's appearance. User @courtenlow posted a Sad Donald Trump Jr. picture with the album title in a tweet that gained over 20 retweets and 60 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @kashanacauley posted a Listens Once joke with Bon Iver and gained over 200 retweets (shown below, right).

Album Reception

Since the album's release, it has gained mixed reviews from music critics and listeners. As of early February 2018, it has an average score of 53 (out of 100, from 22 critic reviews) on Metacritic,^[4] and 2.25 (out of 5, from 596 ratings) from user-aggregated site Rate Your Music.^[5] Anthony Fantano has given the album a "strong 3 [out of 10]," calling it a "buffet of shit" for its misuse of collaborators and influences.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References