Spring and summer are always good times for releasing new funk grooves,no matter from what era of the music they might derive from. As my friend Henrique pointed out in one of his articles a bit back,it’s a time of a lot weekend getaways and being outdoors. So with so much activity,the dance of life is officially commencing. And that dance needs some funky music to go with it. Two years ago,Pharrell Williams gave us such as song in the culturally influential “Happy”. Again it would seem that that the same thing is about to happen again,only this time from Justin Timberlake.
Timberlake really excited the pop music world four summers ago with the first volume of his two part 20/20 Experience. This helped herald in the modern pop world’s reboot of appreciating full length albums as both musically and commercially vital.. As well as giving the cinematic soul/funk genre a big leg back up on that same level as well. Since then,even greater such experiences as D’Angelo’s Black Messiah were set upon the public. And now Timberlake is is returning with a new groove from the forthcoming DreamWorks film Trolls. It’s appropriately entitled “Can’t Stop The Feeling”.
The song starts out with a deep piano based melody accompanied by some swinging hi hat. Hand claps enter the mix before the snare drum kicks into the 4/4 beat of the song. This accompanies Timberlake’s voice,a round and bubbly synthesizer line and one of the most funky dance oriented bass lines this side of the late Bernard Edwards of Chic. On the choruses,rhythm guitars and later in the song string and horn effects enter the mix. A breakdown bridge near the end of the song builds back up from the bass,guitar and back on into the song-closing it all out with a gospel like vocal choir of the songs chorus.
Justin Timberlake premiered this song six days ago. The song was co-written with Swedish music producers Max Martin and Shellback. These two have been responsible for hits from Ariana Grande,Pink,Taylor Swift and Adele in recent years. Doing this song really brings out the tradition of European producers continuing to have a firm grip on the soul/funk/disco sound that black America has struggled to find success with on their own terms for decades. In any case,the fact that a new Justin Timberlake song is proudly based in the disco funk vibe says a lot for his potential future musical priorities.
Andresmusictalk 