Album Review: Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was

Everything I Thought It Was is a really weird album. Not in a cool way. Not in a quirky way. But in an oddly confusing, yet understandable way.

This makes no sense, but it will eventually. Just keep walking with me.

Justin Timberlake is in this limbo-like period of his career where he seems as sure of who he is as he seems unsure. He gets where his place is in music, but he also doesn’t. And he is very aware of the public perception of him, but chooses to act like he isn’t, when it’s clear that he is. And I say all of this to say that I can hear ALL of this in his sixth studio album, Everything I Thought It Was. Justin is constantly bouncing back and forth, pitting one thing against the other, and fighting himself. He has no real focus and no real idea of how he wants to be perceived or where he sits in a media and music landscape which has changed so much since he last released an album. And the album artwork and title even reflect this to a degree. Justin’s just watching things play out and trying to rearrange the pieces of a diorama, but he doesn’t exactly know what he’s trying to make or what it’s supposed to even look like. And it’s a real contrast to an act like Beyoncé, who has become so sure of her brand, what she wants to achieve and how she wants this to be conveyed in her music. Yes. Even in an album as chaotic as Cowboy Carter. And I think part of the difference is that she’s released more music. She’s given herself a bunch of chances to throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks throughout the new normals of a shifting industry and eventually funnel her way to something which works for her.

Full disclaimer. I am going to reference Beyoncé’s Renaissance and Cowboy Carter a lot throughout this review. Purely because I think these albums are good comparisons to draw to Everything I Thought It Was. And also, I consider Beyoncé and Justin to be peers. There is only a year’s difference between them in age. They both came up at the same time. They’re both from the south and proud of it. They’ve both been on their grind since they were kids. They both wore their hair in cornrows. They both started out in popular groups, then managed to have incredibly successful solo careers. They’ve both done songs and tours with Jay-Z. They both have a clear love and appreciation for the golden age of Motown. They’ve both had to navigate the balancing act of being parents and marriage partners, whilst still maintaining their careers. There are multiple moments in pop culture history which have them at the centre. They’ve both worked with Timbaland and The Neptunes throughout their careers. They’ve performed together. They’ve done a song together. Justin’s co-written a couple of songs for Beyoncé. They’ve both done a Super Bowl halftime show. Renaissance is an album which was released at a very different time in music and Beyoncé’s career; the same of which can be said for Everything I Thought It Was. Both albums even start in a similar and slightly unorthodox fashion. There are lots of parallels and things which connect Justin and Beyoncé. And the same goes for their albums.

And the Beyoncé of it all isn’t to frame a narrative of ‘BEYONCÉ IS BETTER’. I just find it interesting how their careers have been very similar and intersected at points, yet have ended up in two completely different places and held in entirely different regards.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

An issue I had long had with Beyoncé was that there wasn’t always a focus with her music. The songs she’d put out were good. And Beyoncé was a master at managing to sell a song, even if it wasn’t particularly great—purely on the conviction of her performances of them. But for me, none of this detracted from Beyoncé’s music lacking a focus and a sense of who she was as an artist, or what her music truly said about her. And I always felt that Beyoncé’s albums weren’t always reflective of how talented I knew she was. Her surprise drop self-titled album was a massive turning of a corner. But Renaissance was the first Beyoncé album where everything fell into place in a way which made sense to me. Renaissance felt like a great representation of her, her artistry and her talents. I can wholeheartedly point to Renaissance and say ‘THIS is a definitive Beyoncé album’ in a way I didn’t feel I could with her other albums, even as much as I liked B’Day and 4.

With Justin, it was different. I felt that Justin had a stronger sense of his sound and delivered cohesive and focused albums earlier than Beyoncé did. Justified and FutureSex/loveSounds felt like albums from an artist who not only had a clear idea of their sound and who they wanted to be, but they were more exciting albums to me than Dangerously in Love and B’Day were. Justin was taking risks that Beyoncé just wasn’t taking and seemed incapable of taking. And when The 20/20 Experience dropped, it seemed that Justin truly knew himself and his sound to a point that he could just put solid albums together in his sleep—cementing that Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds were not flukes. But then came Man of the Woods, and girl…everything changed. Justin seemed to have lost not only his magic touch, but touch with whatever reality was at that time. And now with Everything I Thought It Was, Justin still seems lost. Meanwhile, Beyoncé for the past decade has been taking musical risks and has found a creative groove which has resulted in her putting out solid albums which have genuinely been exciting. It’s like Freaky Friday in this bitch.

Another huge difference between Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé, is that Beyoncé is in this whole other lane unto herself. There is no woman in music who can sing how she sings, perform how she does, put on the shows that she does and shift culture how she does. Nobody. Where-as with Justin, it’s not the case. Justin is in a lane, but there are others in it. Namely, Usher. But The Weeknd is that sneaky bitch who came up behind Justin with bullet bills, lightning bolts and three red shells. The Weeknd does not have as good a voice as Justin Timberlake. And he’s not as good as a performer. But his music is certainly occupying spaces which were once pretty much Justin’s, and Justin’s alone. And Everything I Thought It Was offers so little that After Hours and Dawn FM didn’t already offer. And to make it worse, Dawn FM did a better job of what Justin did here.

‘Bitch. When are you actually gonna talk about the album though!?’. Steady now. Because my above observations are relevant to providing context as to why I think Everything I Thought It Was ended up how it did. Because I do feel, as per Man of the Woods—but not quite to the same degree—that Justin made this album in too much of a bubble. He wasn’t paying enough attention to how things around him were changing. And as a result, he didn’t change. Resulting in an album which feels unessential and doesn’t showcase his talents to the degree that his earlier albums did.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

When I first listened to Everything I Thought It Was, I had no idea what this album was trying to be. But as I listened to it more—to really try and ‘get it’ and settle on what I thought about the album—I began to get a sense of what the album wanted to be.

Man of the Woods was such a huge misstep. Justin struggling to pull his leg out of the bear trap was too much of a spectacle for us to peel our eyes away and give attention to the few moments on the album which actually did work. But no matter which way you try to cut it, Man of the Woods just wasn’t what anybody wanted from Justin, and there wasn’t enough appeal to the songs to sell anybody on them. The album was too light on the things that most liked about Justin’s music—something he’d built up with for almost two decades at that point. So Everything I Thought It Was is a sharp turn back to something people will find more familiar. It’s a checklist of songs that Justin knows people know him for. The issue however, is that none of the instances of these songs are that great nor memorable. Nothing on this album sticks in the same way that “Cry Me a River”, “My Love” or “Mirrors” did. And these are obvious songs for me to pick, but they aren’t the only songs from Justin’s first three albums which are standouts. Justified, FutureSex/LoveSounds and The 20/20 Experience have no shortage of songs which could be considered the poster child for their respective albums.

And Justin strangely seems unable to balance his different sounds as he had done for his first three albums. Justin always found a way to make the variety of sounds work and sit together on an album in a way which felt considerate of the fact that…they had to form an album. A body of work. Something which had to make sense. And this is where Everything I Thought It Was really falls apart. It’s an album of okay songs, which collectively make no sense whatsoever.

There seem to be about three different albums buried within Everything I Thought It Was.

Justin seems to have wanted to just make a feel good dance album, because these are the most prominent songs on the album. And if you strip away a lot of the fluff, this is the album you get. Great! But the problem is, that so many other acts have done this type of album in recent years and have done them better. There are too many retreads on this album, which makes it feel lazy. Or as though Justin is running out of ideas and isn’t as inspired as he used to be. There’s no club ready song which feels as fresh as “Like I Love You” or “SexyBack”. And there’s no variation in the sound of these songs either. They’re all just cute background songs for the roller disco.

But Justin also seemed to have wanted to create Lemon squash. An album about falling out of love and falling in love. But mostly the falling out part. Because Justin loves a ‘fuck that lying bitch’ song. And whilst I completely get why Justin would give us these types of songs in the wake of how successful “Cry Me a River” and “What Goes Around... Comes Around” were, these songs feel strange coming from him now. It’s like ‘Dawg. We’re STILL doing this 20 years later? And in the EXACT same way!?’. With the songs “Drown” and “Flame”, Justin doesn’t even try to switch anything up. They sound like songs that he could have released back in 2006, which could be considered a good thing. But I don’t want to hear Justin giving me songs from 2006. If Justin’s soul compelled him to write a ‘fuck that lying bitch’ song, then I want it to be something which is conducive of the type of person he is now, creatively. But I guess creatively he is still stuck trying to chase himself in 2006, hence “Drown” and “Flame”. And as a Danja fan—as much as I was glad to see his name listed as a producer on “Flame”, he offers nothing new that makes me feel ‘OH SHIT. DANJA’S BACK.’ A moment I’ve been waiting for. And Danja is also one of the main producers on this album. So, make of that what you will.

There’s also hints of Justin being reflective on his life. But these moments are INCREDIBLY few, despite being the direction that Justin should have taken the entire album. But we’ll get to that.

The thing Justin and his team should have been asking when they were making this album, is ‘How do we make an album which feels like an introduction to who Justin is, whilst honouring who he was through the lens of who he is now?’. Because I can’t see how Everything I Thought It Was would appeal to fans of Justified or FutureSex/LoveSounds. Nor can I see how Everything I Thought It Was would appeal to new fans.

Justin is caught between who he was and who he wants to be, but has no idea of who he is in the present.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

I also think that the combination of Man of the Woods being such a mess and the large gap Justin took between then and now didn’t help matters. Were Everything I Thought It Was just stripped down to being a dance album and released 2–3 years ago, it would have fared a whole lot better. And it wouldn’t have felt contrived in any way, because that vibe of music has always been Justin’s thing. So there’s a sense of Justin perhaps having missed his own boat by releasing this album in 2024 instead of 2020 or 2021. Then there’s The Weeknd of it all, which in my headcanon has Justin scowling ‘I woulda gotten away with this album, if it wasn’t for that pesky Abel’ like a Scooby Doo villain as they’re being hauled into a police car.

Ever since The Weeknd’s pivot to pop and his re-brand of sorts into the genre, he’s taken up A LOT of the space that Justin once occupied. I’d go as far as to say that Abel moved in and evicted Justin outta that bitch. And he did this all with the help of somebody known for their work with Justin in his earlier years—Max Martin. The Weeknd did with After Hours and Dawn FM what Justin should have done with Man of the Woods and Everything I Thought It Was. And now it feels like Justin is not only playing catch-up, but wanting us to go to a place Abel had and sell us a T-shirt we’d already bought from Abel. When I listen to “No Angels”, it sounds like a Weeknd song. Then I watch the video…and it looks like a Weeknd video. Justin’s angle isn’t exclusively his anymore. And to be quite honest, it never was. And I think this was the risk he ran by releasing an album which was reportedly full of material intended for Michael Jackson and then releasing an album which sounded just like Prince, then releasing an album which sounded very Stevie Wonder-esque. Justin spent so much time paying homage / copying / channelling other artists solely per album and created a brand through that, that when you strip that away, nobody has any idea what you’re actually left with and who Justin Timberlake actually is—which is part of why I think Man of the Woods just did not land. It said NOTHING about him other than ‘I guess I’m white’.

Everything I Thought It Was was a chance for Justin to reassess and really ask the question ‘What type of artist am I?’ and ‘What type of artist do I want to be seen as?’. And maybe Everything I Thought It Was is the answer to that. But I don’t think that it is. I think this album is Justin trying to answer these questions and not being sure. And no moment highlights this greater than the song which features *NSYNC.

For YEARS fans have wanted an *NSYNC reunion and a follow-up to Celebrity—an album that I don’t think fans expected to be their last. Justin has never really trashed talked *NSYNC since going solo, but there did seem to be a sense of him trying to distance himself from the large shadow that the success of *NSYNC had cast. And whilst it’s easy to rag on Justin and be all ‘You should remember your roots, bitch’, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Justin to not want to be defined by what he had released in his teens. It’s very expected behaviour from somebody in their early twenties who wants to be seen as a paragon of coolness, when they view the shit they did in their teens as the antithesis of cool. We’ve all been there. Some of the things I wore and did in my teens still keep me up at night. But expected behaviour is also reaching a point in your life when you realise that the seemingly ‘uncool’ things you did in your earlier years were actually cool, necessary, and played a part in you becoming who you are. And we’ve seen Justin move into this space of acceptance over the past decade—embracing his *NSYNC roots and no longer trying to shy away from them. The fact he even tried was ridiculous. *NSYNC was way too big for Justin to be acting like he could just shoo that part of his career into a corner. And to once again mention Beyoncé—I truly do believe that part of her success is in how she always honours Destiny’s Child. She understands that it’s a part of her legacy, because so many people became fans of her through Destiny’s Child. So, Justin finally came around and brought the gang back together for a song on one of the Trolls movie soundtracks in 2023—a franchise that Justin is a part of. And Everything I Thought It Was also features a song with *NSYNC. It’s really cool to hear *NSYNC together again, although them other men can barely be heard on the songs. I don’t understand how Justin sounds more like a group on his solo songs than he does on a song…with his OG group. But, that’s a thing.

HENNYWAY.

The point is, Justin tapping back into doing things as part of *NSYNC shows that he is embracing that part of his career, but not yet willing to recommit to it. And I think that he should commit to it. Because I feel that the answers Justin might be seeking lay in a reunion with *NSYNC. And I also feel that it would do more for his solo career and allow him to grow as a songwriter and a producer, because he can break out of the template that he’s boxed himself into over the years. Justin should definitely consider releasing an *NSYNC album next year. In retrospect, it would make Everything I Thought It Was come off far better and feel [looks into the camera] justified. ‘Oh, the album was kinda doo-doo, but at least it led us to an *NSYNC album.’ Because not only do I feel that *NSYNC has unfinished business, but I think it would be the creative jolt that Justin needs. Justin has always shone when he’s written and produced for others and allowed himself to take a step back. So being in this capacity for an *NSYNC album would be great for him. And perhaps being back with the band will allow Justin to be a bit freer when it comes to writing songs about past, present, future and identity—allowing him to feel less exposed, given that all of these topics will speak to the experience of the entire group. And this would also perhaps push Justin back into writing for others.

There was a stretch where Justin was writing a fair amount for others. Madonna’s Hard Candy. Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R. Duran Duran’s Red Carpet Massacre. Ciara’s Fantasy Ride. Esmée Denters’ debut album. Leona Lewis’ Echo. Beyonce’s self-titled album. And then he kinda stopped doing that, save for odd songs for the Troll soundtrack, which showed he still had it. The song he wrote for Ariana was really fucking good. He had that bitch singing with DICTION. I could not believe. His contributions to each of these albums wound up being my favourites. So I feel having other artists to consider and bounce off of is a great creative wrinkle for him, which he could tap into on an *NSYNC album, where he has J.C. Chasez, somebody who can sing and still writes for others. And he could then channel all of this back into his solo material.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

This whole sense of feeling like you don’t know who you are, or that your public perception is so at odds with your own perception of yourself could have made for a really good topic for an album, and something Justin could and should have built the songs around. I think it would have spawned some cool (if hell like) discussions and offered something new. But it’s clear based on Justin’s previous albums, that writing how he feels about himself is not something he does often or is comfortable with. Justin’s feelings are always in relation to a woman in his life, to the point that his songs aren’t ever really about him, truly. It seems like Justin considered sitting down and really getting into how he felt about his life and his career, as evidenced on the album opener “Memphis”, which is a cool deviation and something new from Justin. It’s unlike anything he’s done before. But just as you’re intrigued at the prospect of where the album is going to go from here, it becomes this whole other thing entirely. It’s baffling. And in conjunction with the *NSYNC song “Paradise”—the penultimate song on the album that shoulda been the album closer—it makes even less sense, because “Paradise” feels like the end of the chapter which “Memphis” was the opening of, yet none of the fifteen songs in-between them tell the story of how Justin got from point A to point B. It’s like listening to an album on a cassette tape, which is interrupted by a whole different album that somebody recorded right in the middle of it.

The same way that it seemed that Justin may have had an intent to just make a dance record, it seems that he may have also had the idea to make an album about reflecting back on his life and his career. And I really do think this should have been the move. It would have felt timely at a point in pop culture where his persona—separate from his music—is kinda in tatters between the growing support Janet Jackson continues to receive at an age of realisation of how much misogyny and racism was at play back when her titty made a guest appearance at the superbowl, and in the wake of Britney Spears’ memoir. Justin didn’t need to address either of these things directly. But I do think an album where he reflects on his career and is open about doubts and mistakes he may have made would have shown a level of acknowledgement, even if we don’t get full accountability. And I truly do believe this would have connected with people better than Justin releasing an album where his head is in the sand and the whole thing feels so disconnected from…well, everything. Justin trying to find a way to balance introspection with what is still just a feel good song on the surface could have been a great juxtaposition. So much of dance and disco music was about this contrast. Donna Summer was out here singing about how she dropped her cake in the rain and was having a mental breakdown to a beat that makes you wanna twirl. Justin taking a similar approach could have been really fun and a bit bold, as we don’t often get these types of ‘crying in the club’ songs from men.

Getting truly personal about his own feelings about himself and people’s perceptions of him seems to be a barrier for Justin. And I understand why. But I do think it would have been one worth breaking through for this album, at a point in Justin’s career where people want something familiar, yet also fresh and new from him. And it would have challenged him creatively. Not just in it all being new, but finding ways to tell the truth without making people feel entitled to every aspect of his life. And just making songs so good and so concise, that Justin doesn’t need to say anything more or speak on anything, because enough of it is in the music.

Everything I Thought It Was ending up as a rinse and repeat of what Justin has done over the course of his career is such a waste. The whole thing sounds like a greatest hits album, but with different versions of the hits, because the rights weren’t acquired to use the original songs. So we may as well have just gotten a greatest hits album. And having seen the setlist for his Forget Tomorrow tour, it seems to be a tour celebrating his whole career versus one specifically for this album anyway.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

Whilst Justin says a whole lot of nothing on this album, he sounds good saying it. Justin sounds far more reserved on this album than I think I’ve ever heard him. His delivery is far more playful and intentional, and it suits him. Which is why it’s such a shame the songs on this damn album weren’t better.

When it comes to vocal production, it baffles me that Justin’s name is left out of the conversation, because his vocal arrangements are stellar to a point that they rescue a lot of what would otherwise be utterly boring songs. He is—once again—similar to Beyoncé in this regard, in that his approach to how he arranges his vocals on a piece of music can transform the song entirely. Whilst the Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson comparisons are the most obvious, the way he layers and arranges his vocals is actually more reminiscent of Janet Jackson. Which makes it all the more foul how he left her and her titty out to dry. But, I digress. The vocal arrangements on this album are really great.

The production is also great. Bland? Absolutely. But still great in terms of the sonics. Every song sounds rich and is meticulously produced and mixed. There is a really nice blend of live instrumentation and electronic sounds, which are mixed in a way which gives the entire album a sense of warmth and an element of breadth. There’s a lot to appreciate in this album if you’re an audiophile and somebody who appreciates good mixing. Props to Justin, who is a credited mixer across the entire album. It’s not very common for an artist to mix their own songs, giving Justin another string to his bow.

But as good as the production on this album is, so little of it is exciting or distinct, and these were things which defined Justin’s first two albums. They were exciting to listen to and had a sound unlike anything else released at the time. Even now they’re still exciting to listen to and still feel distinct, despite how many other albums have come along since which have tried to replicate their sound.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

Whilst Justin having a long-time relationship with Timbaland and Danja is really nice thing, it’s becoming apparent that their creative well together has been tapped dry. There’s nothing either of them offer on this album that stands out or pushing anything forward. You would barely know that either of them had anything to do with this album unless you saw their names in the liner notes beforehand, because their shit just bleeds in with everybody else’s. A far cry from when Timbaland and Danja’s productions could not be mistaken for anybody else’s. “Infinity Sex” is the only song on the album where I can clearly hear the Timbaland of it all. It also doesn’t help that Justin brought in Rob Knox, who came up by copying Timbaland. These are Justin’s friends. His music family. I get it. And perhaps Justin thought that bringing them together would spark something. But you have three producers here who have been in creative lulls for the past decade, whose sounds overlap so much that I don’t see the point in having all three of them on an album together. Danja is Timabaland’s protege, who ended up popularising a sound that Timbaland then tried to run with when Danja ventured out on his own. And Rob Knox’s claim to fame is copying Timbaland’s production style, which Justin weirdly ran with when he formed the production trio The Y’s with himself, Rob Knox and James Fauntleroy. And everything they produced sounded just like Timbaland productions. Ciara’s “Love Sex Magic” and “G Is for Girl (A–Z)”. Leona Lewis’ “Don’t Let Me Down”. Esmee Denters’ “Bigger Than the World”. So I’m just like ‘Why did we need three producers with such similar sounds who collectively aren’t giving much of anything?’.

The stand-out production moments on this album are the songs produced by Louis Bell and Cirkut. Their productions have this lil’ crackle of electricity that the Danja and Timbaland productions do not, which further highlights that it’s time for Justin to work with different producers. Man of the Woods already told his ass that it was time to move on. Even with The Neptunes, Timbaland AND Danja on an album, they weren’t able to deliver anything for him which could come even remotely close to what The Neptunes and Timbaland delivered for Justified. And unfortunately for Timbaland, Danja and Rob Knox—when Louis Bell and Cirkut are teamed up with Justin, they’re able to do their sounds better than they can when the time calls. I really thought the beat switch at the end of “My Favorite Drug” was produced by Timbaland. But nope. It was Louis Bell, Cirkut and Justin. I also thought “Drown” may have had something to do with Timbaland and Danja. But, nope. It was Louis Bell, Cirkut and Justin.

Justin Timberlake having picked up tricks from Timbaland over the course of his career is no shock or surprise. But I do feel that it’s limiting his sound and that he has perhaps become too tethered to it. To such a point that no matter who he works with, it seeps into his songs. Because Louis Bell and Cirkut are basically just doing glossy Timbaland impressions across each of their songs. So, if Justin is going to move away from working with Timbaland and Danja, then he needs to allow the other producers he works with to produce things which don’t just sound like something Timbaland or Danja would do. And it’s a shame that Justin didn’t push Danja to lean more into his piano playing and gospel background, because “Alone” is such a gorgeous song which showcases a whole new side to Danja as a producer, and highlights that Justin actually shines in moments of tenderness.

One of the cool realisations that fans and Beyoncé herself has had over the course of Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, is that Beyoncé is the genre. She can do house, she can do pop, she can do disco, she can do folk, she can do bluegrass, she can do rap, and it all still works and fits together within the Beyoncé package, because of her approach and what she brings to every song she records. Justin has a way in which he sings and arranges his vocals which is very him. But he doesn’t seem to have the same level of confidence to really move beyond what he’s already done. And this is crazy to me, given FutureSex/LoveSounds and songs like “SexyBack”, “My Love” and the album title track. It’s like Justin has lost some of his musical nerve, which would explain why this album is so unfocused, long and overstuffed. The whole thing is just uncertain.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was | RCA Records

Everything I Thought It Was is fine as background noise—pleasant enough to just have on, because of how well the music is produced, mixed and how good Justin sounds. And Justin also does not conform to today’s trend of short songs. There is only one song on this album which clocks in at under three minutes. Every other song is three and a half to four minutes long. And in true Justin Timbelrkae fashion, there are odd songs which are five minutes long, with one being 7 minutes long. The downside to this, is that because of Justin’s misjudgement when it came to the tracklisting and this album having 18 tracks, you do feel the length of the whole thing. Everything I Thought It Was most certainly outstays its welcome.

For all of Justin’s shortcomings and some of the questionable ways he’s handled certain situations in his career, he is incredibly talented. And for how overlong and underwhelming Everything I Thought It Was is, Justin’s talent still shines though. Man of the Woods was a huge misstep for Justin and the world let him know it. So it’s good that he came back with an album which is better. The bar was LOW. But still, he cleared it with this album. The problem is that this feels very much like the album we should have gotten instead of Man of the Woods. In fact, this album doesn’t really feel like it needed to even exist, because so little of it feels memorable or like tentpole moments in the ways that Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds.

Everything I Thought It Was is a bit of a mess, but there is something good in the mess. Justin’s decision to overstuff and suffocate the half-decent album which is in the midst of these 18 songs is strange, but makes sense when you consider that he is at a point in his career where he is deeply unsure of where he should go. But Everything I Thought It Was provides Justin a waypoint to where he should go. The test will be to see if he follows it, or continues to sit in the studio as it’s engulfed in flames, telling himself ‘This is fine’. Because Everything I Thought It Was is…fine. But Justin and everybody involved with this album is capable of more than just fine.

Highlights:
▪ Liar
▪ Infinity Sex 🔥
▪ Love & War
▪ My Favorite Drug 🔥
▪ Imagination
▪ Paradise
▪ Alone 🏆