The secret weapon of Justin Timberlake’s comeback single with Jay-Z is its functionality. As SPIN’s Christopher R. Weingarten noted as part of our impulsive reviews of “Suit & Tie” earlier this month, “Being forced to brake yourself in the molly age is why ‘Suit & Tie’ parses as ‘underwhelming,’ but there’s a safe bet that you’ll be singing ‘shit, tie, shit’ at someone’s wedding this year anyway.”
A lyric video for the song is now available, and its elegant, mostly-black-and-white shots of Timberlake showing off his classy wardrobe and puffing a cigar make it all the easier to imagine this song coming as a breath of fresh, breezily soulful air at formal events of just about any kind. Shit, tie, shit! (Still maintaining that “suit and tie” traditionally means “a suit that’s not a tuxedo,” though.)
Mark your calendars, pop fans. The end of the video promises that new album The 20/20 Experience, which would be the former ‘NSync singer’s first since 2006’s excellent FutureSex/LoveSounds, is “coming soon.” But as Rap Up notes, via Pitchfork, there’s also a tiny, tiny shot that reveals the release date is March 19. Your St. Patrick’s Day hangover will be salved by JT.
In the meantime, Timberlake is also coming tantalizingly close to the scene of his famous “wardrobe malfunction” with Janet Jackson: the Super Bowl. As Billboard reports, he’ll be performing at the DirecTV Super Saturday Night Event on February 2 in New Orleans, one day before the Big Easy hosts football’s big game. Which, shit, better not end in a tie.
