Japan Sexyback Tour Review

Close-Up

Shirley Matias Pizarro

TOKYO, Japan – Justin Timberlake’s presence makes all the difference.

The former N’Sync frontman’s magnetic presence was easily felt, lighting up the otherwise stiff listening session purposively held as a pre–launch event for Justin Timberlake’s latest album under Sony BMG Music Entertainment called "Future Sex/Love Sound" at the highend lounge Legato in downtown Shibuya district here.

Justin’s Japan promo event was meant to test the Asian market’s reaction to a new direction that his music was taking him with this new album. His producer sees the shift not only as a radical change for Justin but to the landscape of the international pop music scene as a whole. Justin calls it "a more futuristic and progressive sound."

At the listening session before Justin’s personal appearance where he engaged in a short question and answer episode concerning his album, eight cuts from the "Future Sex/Love Sound" were played, including the carrier single "Sexy Black,’ a truly danceable groove with an unmistakeable upscale techno quality that boasts of intense build-up. This song was a product of a collaboration with Timbaland, whom he worked with for the first time in the song "Cry Me A River" from his "Justified" album.

The other songs played that afternoon were the title track, "Future Sex/Love Sound," "Sexy Ladies," "My Love" featuring Ti, "Love Stoned," "What Goes Around" which came out to our ears as a sweet fusion of old and new genres; "Until The End of Time" that caught our fancy with the last line going like this "if your love is all I have, that will be enough until the end of time…," and the painful ballad "Another Song," which was a plea to start over and rise from the hurt.

Soon after the eight-song listening session, Justin sauntered the room with easy and playful strides, to address the waiting Asian journalists, some of whom flew specifically to this country for this event (Myx’s Andre Alvarez and Sony BMG Philippines’ Chito Confiado, and us included) with a few Japanese words that amused him more than anything.

During the brief Q and A, Justin said the title of the album emerged to be the concept of the entire album. "The title of the album always comes last for me. And it sort of fell into that, it was how the album sounded to me at the end of it. And to me, titles work at one or two words. This is to sum up the whole of the record," he said.

Justin said that at the beginning of the recording for this new album, there was really no conscious and specific concept to work on with. "But I worked a lot with Timbaland and as we progressed, the concept actually became the sound of the album. My writing style didn’t change too much in this album but to create a new and different sound, and put it around the songs, that was what’s interesting," Justin said topping that statement with "tell them" addressing the Japanese interpreter that made everyone chuckle.

The high profile singer also made it very clear that the process of recording the album didn’t conform with any rules. "The only rule we kept during the entire process of making this album was ‘there were no rules.’ I believe that that has a lot to do for it sounding futuristic and progressive," he said.

He also describes the music in the new album as "sophisticated." "We opted to choose a look for the album that matches that sophistication," he said explaining the lay out of the cover. He also joked, "I also wanted to wear really nice clothes. It was an excuse to do it."

Justin ended the brief press encounter Thursday afternoon with another Japanese word meaning thank you inviting everyone to meet him more intimately by the showcase that was held that same night at Zepp Tokyo club in Kotoku. "It will be up close and personal and you will all be making a lot of noise there like what you are doing right now," he promised as he took note of the formality of the Asian journalists in that encounter.

After the listening session and the showcase, Justin faced the press again for a more indepth interview Friday afternoon at the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel here before flying back to the US. Justin’s "Future Sex/Love Sound" album is set for a Sept. 20 release worldwide. He promised to be back in Japan at around that time to promote it once again. He said he is also looking forward to come back in 2007 for a major concert.

Justin’s new look was wonderfully clean, fresh and tailored. Although some say the shift in look does not exactly match the new sound he boasts of, we found no argument over the point that we raised, that Justin looks incredibly handsome as he is.

Suddenly, we were thinking of how beautiful Cameron Diaz must be feeling….