2013.03.25 NEW RELEASES
Boy did he test our patience. But boy, is he rewarding us for the wait.
After seven years, Justin Timberlake has finally released his third album, “The 20/20 Experience,” and it’s a brilliant piece of work that plays like a musical movement. The 10 tracks (which average seven minutes) weave into one another beautifully as his falsetto glides over each beat. It’s an unconventional adventure that makes your bones groove. Seriously.
It’s hard to think of another performer who can make a seven-minute track continuously engaging and refreshing, especially at a time when a five-minute song screams “problem” for radio stations and our attention span gets shorter with every tweet or text. One of the standouts of the album is the eight-minute event called “Strawberry Bubblegum.” It’s smooth, airy and full of sexual innuendoes, and it transitions into something that’s heaven-like. Timberlake was flying high off 2006’s multiplatinum, Grammy-winning “FutureSex/LoveSounds” when he essentially walked away from music to act. AP
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Many people wondered if there would be a next day for David Bowie, professionally speaking. Bowie retreated after suffering a heart attack in 2004, leaving many of his fans to wonder if he had retired. He recorded secretly in New York the past couple of years, announced the imminent release of “The Next Day” on his 66th birthday in January and has said nothing about its contents publicly.
Absence has clearly made the heart fonder, judging by the prerelease raves for his first new music in 10 years. Simmer down. This does not auger a return to Bowie’s 1970s glory days, although “The Next Day” is certainly more focused than his string of forgettable work in the late 1980s and 1990s.
The album cover and song “Where Are We Now?’’ harken back to Bowie’s fruitful period in Berlin. The moody, atmospheric song has Bowie, in a voice rendered fragile by age, wandering the German streets again. Like “Heroes,’’ it ultimately soars and is life-affirming.
It also sounds like nothing else on the disc, not only in tempo but in the personal glimpse it offers. AP
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It’s an honor to hear Jimi Hendrix’s legendary rock music once again after his death in 1970. His new release “People, Hell and Angels” is a special edition to unveil recordings that have been closed to the public until today. His ability to write brilliant songs without learning the notes is evident through the album.
The 12 tracks have various styles, and Hendrix successfully combined percussion, brass instruments, backup guitars and piano.
“Hear My Train A Comin’?” is the very first performance by Band of Gypsys, a trio of Billy Cox, Buddy Miles and Hendrix. While there are many guitarists who admire Hendrix nowadays, he has also shown respect toward Elmore James by reinterpreting his song “Bleeding Heart.”
The rock star was famous for experimenting with amplifiers and stereophonic sounds to make unique music. In “Somewhere,” recorded in 1968, he creates a dynamic and mysterious mood with a Wah-wah pedal, a guitar pedal that alters the tone to mimick the human voice.
By Yoon Hye-sun, contributing writer
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DAVID BOWIE
“The Next Day”
Label: Sony Music
Genre: Hard Rock
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JIMI HENDRIX
“People, Hell and Angels”
Label: Sony Music
Genre: Blues, Rock
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JUSTIN
TIMBERLAKE
“The 20/20 Experience”
Label: Sony Music
Genre: Pop
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with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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