If you know me, you can guess that the baroque, traditional pop orchestrations on The 20/20 Experience have me pretty giddy. In particular, the album reminds of the direct influence old R&B and soul music has had on its modern variants. Justin Timberlake is much more open about that, and it’s that honesty that makes the callbacks come across as more than an homage; it’s a seamless combination of an old sound with something fresh.

However, Timberlake’s limited style as a vocalist undersells the diversity of his influences, and he pulls from that same pool of influences too many times for a 70-minute album, no matter how much he alters song structures to make us believe we’re always going somewhere new. Personally, I feel that The 20/20 Experience lacks standouts I’d want to listen to outside of album’s context, with “Suit & Tie” coming the closest. Take out “That Girl” (I’ll miss its intro) and “Blue Ocean Floor” (though, it’s tonally a fitting closer), and the removed redundancy will mitigate some of the album’s weaker traits.