Justin Timberlake Over-Choreographing Sexuality

Justin Timberlake has worked hard to own the term "sexy." Although a quick Google search will immediately return images from his shirtless Rolling Stone cover shoot and his (mostly) shirtless star turn as a clueless hood in the Nick Cassavetes film Alpha Dog, the pop singer's stage show takes a classier high road, complete with Bob Fosse-inspired dance routines and plenty of soulful R&B slow-jamming.

For the tour's second stop in Toronto this year in support of his sophomore record, FutureSex/LoveSounds, the 26 year old brought a massive, spiralling, multi-layered stage and planted it smack in the middle of the Air Canada Centre. Four mini-platforms jutting out dangerously close to the seated crowd gave a few lucky fans plenty of opportunities to cop a feel of the star, while moving, translucent curtains projected the action to those unable to view the full scope of the spectacle.

But by the time the two-hour-plus set had reached its conclusion, one had the sense Timberlake was working a little too hard at being so damn sexy. With so many multi-tracked vocals, stop-and-start song transitions and Axl Rose-worthy guitar solos, Timberlake was often lost in his own grandeur, left wandering aimlessly between platforms in search of a scantily-clad go-go girl to unconvincingly molest.

Opening with the title track from the recent disc, Timberlake emerged from beneath the stage smartly dressed in a skinny three-piece suit and white running shoes and immediately whipped the crowd into a screaming frenzy, pausing occasionally to drink it all in.

He moved briskly through what felt like remix medleys of singles "Like I Love You" and "My Love," each peppered with pauses so the seven-piece band could switch up a deep dance beat with a soaring guitar solo and then break it all down Janet Jackson-style with an instrumental segue into a fierce, synchronized dance routine.

"I'm just like you," he told the crowd during a brief break. "I like to drink!" With that, he and his band offered a toast to "absolutely... insane... Canadians!"

The first sign Timberlake's stage show might be a little over-rehearsed came during the chuggy, Timbaland-produced "Sexy Ladies," which, like many cuts off FutureSex, relies too heavily on multi-tracked back-up vocals. As a result, Timberlake's airy and boyish vocal histrionics frequently seemed adrift in the music. Coupled with his endless stage roaming, it was easy to lose track of the man himself, much less his voice. Halfway into the song, he reasserted his presence by grabbing a keytar for a brief, but fun, dance number. But his focus always seemed to be on the next dance move, the next stage position and the next transition.

Surprisingly, a highlight was the '90s-sounding R&B swaying-and-finger-snapping slow jam, "Until The End Of Time." Taking a seat behind a piano, Timberlake had more room to show off his vocal range and musicianship. One wonders if he might be a more relatable performer in an intimate environment. For the harsher putdown ballad "What Goes Around...Comes Around," he remained at the piano, but then abandoned it — lest our attention spans waned — to pick up a handheld camera and run it up and down his body.

Mega-producer Timbaland finally emerged halfway into the set, joining JT for "Chop Me Up" and then hitting the turntables to entertain the crowd during the intermission with a retrospective of his songs for Aaliyah, Missy Elliott and Nelly Furtado.

The second half of the show failed to pick up the momentum of Timbaland's deep, dark beats. "Rock Your Body" was followed with an incoherent medley of love songs including the forgettable *NSYNC number, "Gone." By the time the band busted out "Cry Me A River," the dance routines were more and more incidental and formulaic. Timberlake would wander, bump into a few dancers, slip into a brief routine and then move on to the next closest girl working a sequined tube top.

Timberlake's appeals to "make some noise" became more and more frequent during "Lovestoned." With the two-hour mark fast approaching, one wondered if a masturbatory hand gesture or even a briefly exposed treasure trail could whip the girls back into their screaming frenzy. Alas, the tie remained firmly in place. Timbaland returned and the duo finished the show with "SexyBack." It's just as well. Watching big, bald Timbaland in his oversized long-sleeve white shirt bust a move alongside a slinky, shirtless, hairless boy band-type wouldn't have been very sexy at all.