Album review: Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience 2 Of 2 (RCA)

Comprising as it does outtakes from the sessions for The 20/20 Experience, it's hardly surprising there should be a drop-off in quality for this follow-up; but it's a pretty steep fall. With four tracks dragged out beyond seven minutes apiece, longueurs are a serious problem, particularly on "TKO" - Timbaland's irritatingly itchy percussive backdrop sounds like a machine afflicted with fleas. And adding a rotten dub-reggae coda to the already overlong "Only When I Walk Away" simply adds insult to infamy. Elsewhere, the album is awash in vapid bubblebath-soul bleating and feeble falsetto on tracks like the '80s R&B-styled "Take Back The Night", which exposes Justin Timberlake's Michael Jackson fixation as empty imitation.

Download: Gimme What I Don't Know (I Want); Not A Bad Thing