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Justin Timberlake’s Brit Awards ‘Mirrors’ Is Marginally Better Than Grammys Set

Justin Timberlake, Mirrors, Brit Awards

The continued dominance of Mumford and Sons wasn’t the only injustice at last night’s 2013 Brit Awards: Justin Timberlake, who could’ve walked on water around the time of 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds (in the “SexyBack” video, he leaped onto a balcony), looked alarmingly human. Of course, in 2013 that wasn’t really a surprise: The 20/20 Experience on March 19, his ’40s retro first single “Suit & Tie” lacks his usual oomph, and a stuffy black-and-white performance at the Grammy Awards was redeemed only thanks to a David Fincher-directed music video. At the Brits, JT performed the soppy power ballad “Mirrors,” which he first posted online Grammy night as an eight-minute epic with once-futuristic Timbaland production.

The black-and-white, the beatboxing, and the track’s unnecessary last three minutes were all blessedly gone at the Brits. And the big band’s energy almost helped put so-so “Mirrors” over. But as Timberlake strolled the show looking like a maître d’, with his slick hair and tux, a song with a central lyric that cluelessly flips “I’ll Be Your Mirror” as a puzzling pickup line climaxed with a music-drops-out clap-along that more closely resembled Chicago’s “You’re the Inspiration” or REO Speedwagon’s “I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore.” Which, not gonna hate the state-fair monster ballads, but that probably wasn’t what Timberlake had in mind.

These clips keep getting taken down, but try watching a fairly lo-fidelity video above, or sit through a commercial and watch a better video rip over at Mr. World Premiere.