Albums of the week
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
“The 20/20 Experience
2 of 2”
★★½
Justin Timberlake is devising ever more opulent ways of saying not much. This sequel to his March album of (nearly) the same name is both overlong and underbaked — a soufflé that never rises. The tracks stretch out for five to nine minutes at a time, but the grooves aren’t engrossing and the hooks are thin on the ground. There are exceptions — the Michael Jackson-esque “Take Back the Night” is appealingly lean (though it shares its name, awkwardly, with an anti-sexual-violence foundation), and “You Got It On” is languid and pretty. Let’s hope he doesn’t start making movie sequels, too.
LORDE
“Pure Heroine”
★★
Just what we needed — a Lana Del Rey tribute act. Lorde is a 16-year-old New Zealander with a Top-5 hit, “Royals,” which is about thinking you’re better than the pop culture to which you pay attention. It’s a theme echoing throughout this debut: “I’m kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air — so there,” she sings on “Team,” one of many songs about being a bored teenager. The songs are largely dull as well, though occasionally she throws out a good line, like “Maybe the Internet raised us/Or maybe people are jerks,” from “A World Alone.”
Downloads of the week
MOBY feat. WAYNE COYNE
“The Perfect Life”
★★½
Moby’s past few albums have been pretty listless, so it’s nice to hear him a bit more engaged on “Innocents,” his 11th. That goes for “The Perfect Life,” which has the sweeping strings, high-arcing tune and flat vocal delivery of Moby’s usual work; Coyne i s more co-singer than guest lead.
TYLER FARR
“Redneck Crazy”
★★
The title track from the debut of Nashville’s latest bad boy is a lackluster midtempo ballad with nasty revenge-fantasy lyrics: “I’m gonna aim my headlights into your bedroom windows/Throw empty beer cans at both of your shadows.” Who’d leave this gem of a guy, again?
DELTRON 3030 feat. ZACK DE LA ROCHA
“Melding of the Minds”
★★
If David Bowie can take more than a decade to record new music, so can indie-rap supergroup Deltron 3030, whose “Event II” follows their 2000 debut. On this song, Dan the Automator’s beats and Kid Koala’s scratches are cinematic, while Del the Funky Homosapien’s rhymes are spry but don’t really stick.
ALOE BLACC
“Wake Me Up (Acoustic)”
★½
Aloe Blacc, guest vocalist on Avicii’s world-eating single “Wake Me Up,” had a throwback-soul song “I Need a Dollar” that was the theme to HBO’s “How To Make It in America.” Blacc’s solo version sounds the way anyone familiar with the hit would imagine — minus the electro gewgaws, it’s simply a pile of earnest clichés.
BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA feat. JUSTIN VERNON of BON IVER
“Every Grain of Sand”
★½
The always-pompous Vernon produced the Blind Boys’ new album “I’ll Find a Way” and sings co-lead on this Bob Dylan cover with Boys founder Clarence Fountain. Vernon, unsurprisingly, is ridiculously overmatcćhed vocally; it doesn’t help that the arrangement is a snooze, and the song is one of Dylan’s most overrated.