Much like Hollywood’s “Summer Movie Season” started last weekend with the release of Captain America: Civil War (review here), we’ve already got the “Song of the Summer” in place even though summer doesn’t officially start for another six weeks.
Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” is everything you want in a terrific summer jam: a light, pop beat that makes you groove as soon as the music kicks in combined with easy-to-remember pieces of lyrics, with the “dance, dance, dance” serving as the perfect bit of repetition that even your Momma is going to know in about three weeks.
While you may think that makes this song corny or excludes it from discussions of all things cool, but the reality is that for a song to be a monster summer hit – like this one will be – it needs to be something that appeals across all demographics and platforms. You just want a good, fun, “I could listen to this on repeat for an hour without getting tired of it” track that becomes your go-to when you’re cruising down the road, getting ready for a cookout or kicking off a little gathering at the house.
This track ticks all those boxes and the fact that Timberlake is established and so damn likable certainly helps too. People know who he is and when someone asks, “Have you heard that new Justin Timberlake track yet?” there doesn’t need to first be an introduction to the artist and their collected works like there was last summer when The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” dominated the airwaves.
The track is from the soundtrack for the upcoming DreamWorks animated movie Trolls, based on the big-haired troll dolls with Timberlake and this video’s famous co-stars – Anna Kendrick, Gwen Stefani, James Corden and Kunal Nayyar – all providing voices, and is a bit of a comeback victory for JT.
While The 20/20 Experience delivered a couple solid singles, it wasn’t the smash hit many wanted or hoped for following a seven-year pause between albums. “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” is a return to the dance vibes that dominated Timberlake’s solo debut, Justified, and that dotted his sophomore smash, FutureSex/LoveSounds and returns him to the upper echelon of pop stars putting out good music right now.
Because whether anyone likes to say it out loud or not, we still really love Justin Timberlake the musician more than JT the actor or JT the dude that drops in on Fallon every couple months to do another installment of The History of Rap, which can be put to bed permanently if this is a safe space where honest thoughts can be shared without penalty. This is where the former Mouseketeer and boy band breakout performer excels and it’s nice to see him kick off the summer with an instant classic.
Welcome back, JT. And now back to the song for the 427th time.
