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The ShortListen: Justin Timberlake (no. 307)

Has this year's Happy arrived?

The ShortListen: Justin Timberlake (no. 307)
06 May 2016

Who? Justin Timberlake

What’s the story? Get Lucky, Blurred Lines, Happy - the beautiful thing about pop music is that every so often an absolute, undeniable banger will come along and unite dancefloors across the country: from hipster clubs through to wedding DJ sets. And while we'd have put money on Calvin Harris providing that this year, his new Rihanna collaboration - although excellent - is not that song. Step forward Justin Timberlake with this track, taken from the soundtrack of the forthcoming Trolls movie. It's been produced by genius Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback (responsible for a host of classic pop songs, most recently, the best track from Taylor Swift's 1989, Style, as well as The Weeknd's I Can't Feel My Face) and - as standard for Timberlake - is hugely Michael Jackson influenced, yet thoroughly modern-sounding, with hooks all over the place. There's some proper songwriting also firmly in place - the jazzy pre-chorus could have come straight from Off The Wall. It comes complete with a star-studded video (the cast of Trolls, including Anna Kendrick, James Corden and Kunal Nayyar). It's a much-needed uptempo smash for Timberlake too, after the relatively laid-back 20/20 Experience) - if this isn't everywhere by the end of the summer then we'll eat Justin's hat.

For fans of: Michael Jackson, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift

In three words: Huge summer anthem

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Listen to all of them as they become available, on this Spotify Playlist