8A - Friday, October 4, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

8A - Friday, October 4, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

ALBUM REVIEW
Nothing new in
JT's 'Experience'

HNE A RT NO TEBOOK
Bad theater can prove
to be a good time

Sequel would
do better as a
re-release
By GREGORY HICKS
Daily Arts Writer
Excess will be the undoing of
Justin Timberlake. The suave
pop and R&B singer isn't the
first big name
to relentlessly C+
release mate-
rial - a com- The 20/20
mon critique f
or praise of """'
the dynamic 2 Of 2
Barbadian pop Justin
singer Rihanna T
- but Timber- Timberlake
lake's work is jive
,far too monot-
onous to be
generated in surplus. The 20/20
Experience was about twice the
length of a standard album, and
The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 is
even longer than its 70-minute
counterpart. That's nearly four
albums' worth of material with-
in the same seven months. Per-
haps Timberlake is eager to fill
in the gap for his six-year music
hiatus.
At the very least, work with
somebody - anybody - other
than Timbaland. This will
be Timberlake's third album
entirely produced by the cel-
ebrated hip-hop producer, and
those who don't verse them-
selves on their music history are
doomed to repeat it. Artists who.
cling to the same producer will
preserve the sound they've come
to be known for, but shorten
their musical shelf life in doing
so. Grungy pop artist Ke$ha
encountered this dilemma in

By REBECCA GODWIN
Daily Arts Writer
While on vacation with my
family this summer, we happened
upon a local theater production
and, being the theater fanatic that
I am, I convinced my parents to
see the show. Thus began both my
worst and best night ever at the
theater.
The show, titled "The Lost Col-
ony," has been running for years,
and details, through creative
license, the very unclear fate of the
Roanoke settlers, performed in an
outdoor amphitheater. Reviews
online were favorable and locals
said the show was worth the price
of the tickets.
Withinotwo minutes of the start
of the production though, those
hopes were all but shattered. As
dozens of settlers walked onto
the stage, singing what I can only
describe as a Gregorian chant
interspersed nicely with moments
of high-pitched shrieking, I knew
this was going to be a rough night.
After the settlers finally
stopped moaning, a narrator
(picture a televangelist wearing
a judge's robe) entered and began
to summarize ... something. I say
something because he wasn't real-
ly saying anything of real value.
There were a lot of words, tons
of religious symbolism, plenty
of projecting and dramatic hand
flourishes, but not a whole lot of
exposition.
I told my mom to give it a few
minutes, as the show couldn't
truly be this bad; it had won a Tony
Award (at least according to the
program anyway), and the audi-
ence members who had reviewed

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The r
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ow before us could not have accents, sword fights that were so
so blind to the low level of slowed down you could clearly see
y they were witnessing. fake blades being shoved under
when the "Native Ameri- armpits rather than through I
ran onstage, even I couldn't chests and gunfire that was repeat-
Lp the charade that the show edly and obviously shot straight
get better. I was more than into the air while still managing to
confused when the Native "kill"various actors.
cans weren't Native Ameri- But the best moment came near
t all, but rather a large group the end of the intermission and
ucasian men and women had very little to do with what
d the most unconvincing was happening onstage. A couple
of copper brown I've ever with an elderly woman had, for
led by a very large, fit Afri- one reason or another, decided to
merican man. return the woman to her wheel-
racial and cultural inac- chair to watch the remainder of
es were simply astounding, the performance. Just as they
hey only grew more erro- positioned her in the wheelchair,
when the group began its the lights in the theater went out
onal tribe dance. Now, I'm again. After 30 seconds, a loud
expert on Native American crash off to my left rang out, and I
e, but I'm fairly certain that turned to discover thatthe gentle-
Americans weren't doing man hadn't wanted to wait for the
aany arabesques and jetds. stage lights but had instead rolled
the elderly woman into four metal
folding chairs.
The commotion settled down
yland the actors entered the stage
a l to begin the second act. One of the
it's funny. settlersyelled agreetingto afellow
actor onstage, and the old woman,
apparently unfazed by her crash,
yelled, "Hello!" right back. The
:his point in the show, I had audience fell silent and I had to
ptions. I could sulk over the bite down on my hand to'stop from
at it was terrible and leave erupting in peals of laughter dur-
g had a very unfortunate ing a scene that included the death
ence at the theater, or I could of several settlers.
the show for its awfulness While the old woman turned
ke it in all of its cheesy, corny out to be the highlight of the pro-
istorically incorrect glory. I duction, my parents and I left hav-
the latter, figuring what the ing had a pretty good time.We had
I might as well have a good stories to tell others and memories
that would make us laugh when we
show didn't disappoint: looked back. So I guess even bad
emaining two hours were theater can sometimes be good.
with undecipherable English But we're never going back. Ever.

"To be or not to be."
2012 after gluing herself to Dr.
Luke for four years, when War-
rior massively undersold.
There's nothing to be said
about The 20/20 Experience -
2 of 2 that couldn't be said by
describing The 20/20 Experi-
ence. Seems like an obvious
statement, given the titling,
but why not just opt for a re-
release? Artists like Lady Gaga
experienced immense success
with their re-releases, such as
The Fame Monster, despite hav-
ing a new number of tracks that
could've constituted an entirely
new record.
Each song on The 20/20Expe-
rience - 2 of2 was created simul-
taneously with the tracks from
The 20/20 Experience, making it
a recipe for a secondhand piece
of work. It's essentially a col-
lection of every song unworthy
of Timberlake's musical hiatus
return six months ago. Releasing
unused goods is common prac-

tice for artists, but once again,
typically done on re-releases or
EPs.
Drake spices up the collabo-
rations a bit on "Cabaret," but
another Jay-Z-Timberlake tag
team on "Murder" only serves
to highlight JT's predictability..
Surprisingly, "TKO" - one of
the album's most watered-down,
beat-oriented tracks - was cho-
sen as the record's second pro-
motional single.
Sadly, most of its tracks aren't
worth any detailing, aside from
the lead single, "Take Back the
Night," which comes as a com-
bination of Michael Jackson's
Off the Wall era and Jackson's
single "Wanna Be Startin' Some-
thin' " from his Thriller days.
Though debuting in the Top 40,
the single performed poorly in
contrast to his last few releases.
Timberlake may be taking back
the night, but he should consider
taking back the album instead.

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