At the top of the year, Justin Timberlake drew from rural American imagery for his album Man of the Woods, resulting in lackluster sales by his lofty standards and an online discourse on white privilege. He now seems to be pulling a complete aesthetic 180 with his new single "SoulMate," a song so breezy and percolating that it sounds like a bottle of light craft beer learned how to sing and arrange music in Pro Tools.
The track's just about a one-night stand, seemingly set in the unidentified tropical locale pictured on the single art (it was recorded in the Bahamas, apparently). More important is the overall briskness of the song, so full of vibes that it basically evaporates. Also, that JT has seemingly abandoned further promoting Man of the Woods with any other singles in favour of dropping an unrelated, naked bid for Song of the Summer. It's a strong attempt, but there is no Bad Bunny or J Balvin on here, so let's see how it does. Listen to "SoulMate" above.
This article originally appeared on Noisey CA.