Brett Callwood
Justin Timberlake
FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive/Zomba)
Your Angel Digs Timberlake: Maddy Boyd, the talent behind L.A. project Your Angel, told us about her love for a Timberlake gem.
Maddy Boyd: My favorite album of all time has to be Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds. Not only did this record soundtrack my childhood, it has continued to soundtrack my life into my 20s.
(Jive/Zomba)
My mom was so infatuated with this album. My family still listens to it every Christmas morning instead of listening to Christmas music! My mom used to roll through the pick up line at school pumping her breaks to the beat of “SexyBack.” She used to sleep with VH1 on every night and I remember one day at breakfast she told us that she had woken up to the best song she’d ever heard and thought it was a dream — the song she heard was the outro of “LoveStoned/I Think She Knows.” It’s the part of the song where the beat drops out and it’s just electric guitar; in the video he is standing in a white room and then turns into a holographic radio wave. We all watched the video before school that day and I think it literally rewired my brain.
I think Justin Timberlake and Timbaland’s collaborative relationship is one of the best of all time. I learn something new from this record yearly, but the overlying truth I’ve taken away from it is the beauty and effectiveness of sparsity and simplicity when it comes to production. Timbaland’s production is so barebones at the end of the day. He just writes amazing hooks and his drums go so hard. He hardly even plays chords. He’s not using crazy sounds or processing, the songs are just hits. He has influenced me as a producer probably more than anyone else. His approach to production is so intuitive and human and I think that’s why he’s made some of the best pop music out there, specifically with Justin Timberlake. Together they majorly pushed the sonic boundaries of pop with this record.
These songs will never get old to me. I still cry when I listen to them. Not even because of what they are about, I just find them overwhelmingly amazing. This album opened my eyes to the type of music I want to make. Pop music that is unique and left-of-center yet loved by the mainstream. The way they blended pop, R&B, techno, trance, funk and rock and ended up with this fiercely unique yet palatable and widely loved record is so cool. I think I will turn to this record for inspiration and enjoyment for the rest of my life.
Your Angel Digs Timberlake: Your Angel’s new single “Good Girl” is out now. The album, A Star in the Headlights, is out March 17.
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