Days before his return to the Super Bowl Halftime Show stage, Justin Timberlake will be getting back to the music. On February 2nd, the multi-platinum singer-songwriter will release Man of the Woods, his fifth solo studio album, with a possible first single dropping on Friday, Jan. 5.
The announcement was made in a short video teaser posted to his Twitter account this morning (Jan. 2). “This album is really inspired by my son, my wife, my family, but more so than any other album I’ve written, where I’m from,” said Timberlake about the album he called “personal.”
The trailer also features country backdrops like corn fields, dirt roads and snowy landscapes, as well as a glimpse of a studio session with Pharrell Williams. This could mean that the former N’SYNC leader’s soon-to-be released project will see JT taking it back to his roots. Check out his Introducing Man of the Woods video above.
In November 2016, Timberlake confirmed that he was working with both Timbaland and Pharrell on new music.
“I wouldn’t say [my new music] is the antithesis of 20/20, but it does sound more singular,” Timberlake told Variety in 2016. “If 20/20 sounded like it literally surrounds your entire head, this stuff feels more like it just punches you between the eyes.”
In the same story, Pharrell emphasized the importance – and difficulty – of pop stars tapping into vulnerability.
“For the biggest pop stars in the world, the place where they have the most trouble is honesty,” he said. “It’s hard for them to know that the beauty of a record, the sweetest spot in the song, is where they show vulnerability. Because there’s a formulaic sort of vulnerability, like, ‘Baby, I can’t sleep without you …’ and that’s not really it. But if you’re able to really screenshot your own vulnerability, and frame it properly, and color-correct it, then it becomes something that every human can relate to. And I think Justin is in the place where he’s mastering that right now.”
Next month, we’ll see just how well he’s mastered that vulnerability.