Justin Timberlake on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Justin Timberlake was born in Memphis on 31 January 1981 and spent 1993 to 1995 as a Mouseketeer on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez and Ryan Gosling. In 1995 he recruited Chasez for the vocal group that became NSYNC, and the two sang lead through a run that ended with Celebrity in 2001 and an indefinite hiatus the year after.

What came next was built on producers rather than on a label plan. In 2002 Timberlake went to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, and to Timbaland, and those partnerships held for two decades: Timbaland and Danja on the second album, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon on the two 20/20 Experience volumes, the Neptunes and Danja again on the fifth. The result is a catalog where the singing is treated as one more rhythm part, and where the drum programming dates each record more precisely than the vocals do.

That is why these albums are worth shelving together. Six records across twenty-two years track the move from Virginia Beach drum machines to seven minute suites to the sprawling, guest heavy pop of the 2020s, and GOOD TASTE carries the complete solo run. Here is where to start and where to go after that.

Justified - The Neptunes Blueprint

Released 5 November 2002 on Jive, Justified was cut at Westlake in Los Angeles, Manhattan Center in New York and the Virginia Beach rooms where Timbaland worked, with the Neptunes handling most of it and Scott Storch, the Underdogs and Brian McKnight filling in. Like I Love You brought Clipse along, Cry Me a River is the Timbaland track that pointed at everything after it, and Janet Jackson turns up on (And She Said) Take Me Now. We stock it as a light blue colored pressing.

• Why it's worth purchasing: the cleanest document of the Neptunes in their most productive stretch, four bar loops with almost no padding.
• Why it's worth purchasing: Cry Me a River and Senorita make the case for this as a soul record rather than a boy band spinoff.
• Why it's worth purchasing: the colored pressing is a tidy shelf copy of a debut most people only know from the radio.

FutureSex/LoveSounds - Timbaland Takes the Wheel

Recorded between October 2005 and June 2006, mostly at Timbaland's Thomas Crown Studios in Virginia Beach, FutureSex/LoveSounds arrived in September 2006 on Jive and Zomba with Timbaland and Danja on nearly every track. SexyBack, My Love with T.I. and What Goes Around... Comes Around run in sequence early on, Three 6 Mafia show up on Chop Me Up, will.i.am produced Damn Girl, and Rick Rubin closes the record with (Another Song) All Over Again.

• Why it's worth purchasing: the album that rebuilt mainstream pop around Timbaland's drum programming, and the one to own first.
• Why it's worth purchasing: a real album rather than a singles vehicle, with tracks that segue and a second half that rewards sitting still.
• Why it's worth purchasing: the Rick Rubin closer and the Three 6 Mafia feature show how far the guest list ranged.

The 20/20 Experience Part 1 - The Long Form Return

Out 15 March 2013 on RCA after a seven year gap, The 20/20 Experience was tracked in roughly twenty days at Larrabee and EastWest in Los Angeles and Jungle City in New York, with Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon producing. Ten songs run past seventy minutes: Mirrors alone goes beyond eight, Suit & Tie brings Jay-Z in over a horn arrangement that keeps changing key, and the vamps and abrupt tempo shifts are the design rather than an indulgence.

• Why it's worth purchasing: long form pop that actually uses its running time, closer in shape to a 1970s soul album.
• Why it's worth purchasing: Mirrors and Suit & Tie both land harder in album sequence than they do on their own.
• Why it's worth purchasing: it is the first half of a two record project, so it sets up Part 2 directly.

The 20/20 Experience Part 2 - The Darker Half

Issued 27 September 2013 on RCA from the same sessions, The 20/20 Experience Part 2 is the rougher, later-night companion, again produced with Timbaland and Harmon. Drake appears on Cabaret and Jay-Z returns on Murder, the Benjamin Wright Orchestra carries strings and horns across several tracks, and Take Back the Night and TKO are the songs that pull hardest toward the dance floor.

• Why it's worth purchasing: the grittier half, and the one most listeners skip past on the way back to the first volume.
• Why it's worth purchasing: the Drake and Jay-Z features here exist nowhere else in the catalog.
• Why it's worth purchasing: Benjamin Wright's orchestral writing gives it a depth the programming alone would not reach.

Man of the Woods - The Detour

Released 2 February 2018 on RCA, Man of the Woods is the record that broke the pattern, with Timberlake producing alongside Danja, the Neptunes, Timbaland, Jerome Harmon, Rob Knox and Eric Hudson. Chris Stapleton sings on Say Something and co-wrote elsewhere, Alicia Keys takes Morning Light, and the rural framing sits on top of production that is still unmistakably Virginia Beach underneath.

• Why it's worth purchasing: the most argued over album here, and better heard on its own terms than by reputation.
• Why it's worth purchasing: Say Something with Chris Stapleton is the clearest meeting point between Nashville and this catalog.
• Why it's worth purchasing: a late Neptunes and Timbaland collaboration, which makes it a useful bookend to Justified.

Everything I Thought It Was - The Reunion Record

Out 15 March 2024 on RCA, Everything I Thought It Was runs eighteen tracks past seventy five minutes, with a production cast that includes Louis Bell, Cirkut, Danja, Ryan Tedder, Timbaland, Calvin Harris and Federico Vindver. The reason to reach for it is Paradise, the seventeenth track, which brings the NSYNC lineup back onto a record together for the first time since Celebrity.

• Why it's worth purchasing: Paradise is the NSYNC reunion recording, and it lives here rather than on any group release.
• Why it's worth purchasing: the widest production roster in the catalog, which makes it the most varied listen of the six.
• Why it's worth purchasing: Selfish and Drown show the ballad writing holding up two decades on.

Two side doors worth knowing about. The group records are here as well: *NSYNC (25th Anniversary), No Strings Attached and Home For Christmas all file under the band's name rather than his, so they sit outside the collection linked below. And Timberlake turns up as a guest on Calvin Harris - Funk Wav Bounces Vol 2, released 5 August 2022 on Columbia, singing Stay With Me alongside Halsey and Pharrell Williams.

If You Like Justin Timberlake

• Michael Jackson: the template for the whole project, and the reference point Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds keep circling back to.
• Bruno Mars: the same instinct for retro soul arrangements under contemporary pop writing, with Unorthodox Jukebox and 24K Magic as the entry points.
• The Weeknd: where the late night half of this catalog went next, from House of Balloons through Starboy.
• Usher: the other voice that carried Jam and Lewis style R&B into the 2000s, with Confessions the obvious place to begin.
• Mariah Carey: the pop and hip-hop crossover blueprint that Justified was built on top of.

This catalog sits across two shelves here, so browse both: Pop for the singles-forward end and R&B for the records these ones borrow from. Our Essential Soul on Vinyl guide covers the shelf underneath all of it. To see everything under his name in one place, every pressing and format, browse the Justin Timberlake collection.