Timberlake phones in much of TU Center performance

His Super Bowl performance was tepidly received and his latest album, “Man of the Woods”, was critically panned. But while he’s faced critical resistance for the first time in a long time, his commercial success continues unabated. “Man of the Woods” has sold well and its ensuing tour is one of the top grossing of 2018.

On Saturday night, Timberlake brought his “Man of the Woods” show to the Times Union Center where he ran through half of that album, plus nearly two dozen more hits and covers in front of an effusive, close-to-sold out crowd. It was a show big on spectacle and production values and ultimately an entertaining experience, but at multiple points it felt like Justin Timberlake opted to coast through his performance.

The Man Of The Woods Tour, Albany, EE.UU. +7 images

Timberlake opened his set with “Filthy”, the lead single from “Man of the Woods”, and it landed with a thud. The song’s odd, slow pace and arrhythmic melody, combined with somewhat flat lead vocals from Timberlake, made for a jarring start to an arena pop show. After following up with the “Off the Wall”-lite funk-pop of “Midnight Summer Jam”, Timberlake and his 15-piece ensemble the Tennessee Kids popped off a solid version of “LoveStoned”.

Next came “SexyBack”, the most underwhelming song of the evening. Timberlake was content to let the audience sing the bulk of the tune, while he wandered across a stage that cut a swath across the entire arena floor, occasionally stopping to do a single choreographed move with his dancers or sing a line or two.

“Suit and Tie” was mostly a series of what looked like slow-mo synchronized dance steps, Timberlake dancing alongside an LED-lit microphone stand anchored on a pivot so it could sway without him really having to touch it. On “Cry Me a River”, Timberlake was again content to let the audience do the heavy lifting vocally while he strolled around and occasionally twirled or did a move like the shoot.

Shortly after that tune, Timberlake stood in the center of the arena for a strong version of “Mirrors”. The “Man of the Woods” motif was used a couple songs later. Situated at the farthest end of the stage (just in front of the exits onto Pearl Street), a makeshift campfire and benches were set up. Timberlake played the acoustic and introduced all his back-up singers, who then sang pieces of material by Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, Lauryn Hill and John Denver.

Timberlake put forth a lot more effort once this portion of the show concluded“.Morning Light” and “Say Something” were gems. He sang hard on both and buoyed by strong vocal support from the Tennessee Kids, both tunes soared.

During “Montana”, Timberlake crooned and walked along the stage, grabbing cell phones from fans in the front row to snap some selfies. For “Rock Your Body”, Justin Timberlake and his dancers left the stage to bust a move on a light-up dance pad on the arena floor.

The set ended with “Can’t Stop the Feeling”. It was a sea of bodies, half the band on one end of the arena and the rest on the opposite. Timberlake stood in the center with his dancers, moving a little but mostly just encouraging everyone else to “Dance, dance, dance”. It made for a fun end to his performance.

If you’ve ever asked yourself how many better artists a lesser one can poorly imitate in 30 minutes, Timberlake’s guest performer Francesco Yates can provide the answer. I counted five: the Weeknd, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars on a particularly lame cover of “Finesse”, Prince and Morris Day. Yates’ voice was weak, dance moves pedestrian and his original material guilelessly derivative. And his Twitter/Instagram handle, which was on the backdrop behind him, had his name spelled wrong. That’s just amateurish.

Time's Union