Man of the Woods

Album: Man of the Woods (2018)
Charted: 73
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Songfacts®:

  • This slice of slinky pop is the title track of Justin Timberlake's fifth studio album. Speaking in an Instagram video, the singer cleared up misconceptions around the name of his record. He explained the whole project is named after his son Silas, as his name means "man of the woods" in Latin.

    "Stop telling me I'm making a country album!," Timberlake added laughing.
  • Timberlake himself has described the Man of the Woods album as "modern Americana.... with 808s". The singer seems keen to pay homage to the southern environment of his own upbringing and this song's sound nods to Memphis' famous record label, Stax.
  • Directed by Paul Hunter, the song's rustic video sees Timberlake donning his flannel shirt and dancing his way through the woods. The clip ends in a log cabin with his actress wife Jessica Biel, to whom the track is dedicated. The singer told Apple's Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe:

    "You hear all these stories about people who work together that are you know bonded otherwise and it was so easy. I actually hope we get to work together again on more stuff. You know because having her around, she's such an influence on the album and so in that song being so special it just felt like a great moment for us to share. And I just wanted it to be honest. There are other songs on the album that videos that I feel require a different level of performance but that one was the first song written for the album that was written specifically about her. There's two love letters on the album. 'Man of The Woods' is my love letter to her and 'Young Man' as my love letter to my son. And so it just felt like nothing else would do."

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