Justin Timberlake has announced his first album in five years, Man of the Woods.
Accompanying the announcement of the new album, out February 2, Timberlake dropped a woodsy, one-minute trailer online that looks like a one-man Brokeback Mountain.
In the promotional video above, JT roams the prairies and deserts of the West, clad in a poncho no less. “I feel so earthy,” he says in a voiceover at the end of the video.
Man of the Woods will a feature a Timberlake collaboration with breakout country titan Chris Stapleton, but the snippets of new music in the video sound like loved-up pop jams in JT’s usual wheelhouse.
But the online snark directed at Timberlake’s rugged new “woodsman” persona has come swiftly. One article announced, “Justin Timberlake is rebranding as a white man,” while Twitter also had a field day:
JT looks like he's about to try something for the first time in a tent with Jake Gyllenhaal 👀 pic.twitter.com/40nmDkzgGz
— Hugh McIntyre (@PopBangHugh) January 2, 2018
Nice try, Justin pic.twitter.com/9YwbtJfsNw
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) January 2, 2018
MAN OF THE WOODS an Album By Justin Timberlake pic.twitter.com/1E7VcfSmMd
— Elden The Generous (@bumpdungus) January 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/SamanthaRollins/status/948213808220303360https://twitter.com/arb/status/948221005725622272