“TKO,” Justin Timberlake”s second single from “The 20/20 Experience 2 of 20” uses boxing as a metaphor for love.
He”s in love with someone who hits below the below even after the ref blows the whistle. “This isn”t the girl I used to know… I”m down for the count, yet girl, you knock me out.”
Like many of the songs on “The 20/20 Experience,” it”s a heavyweight of a song, weighing in at 7:06. Plus, it”s more of a rambling, shuffling groove of a tune rather than any kind of conventional chorus/verse/chorus. Timbaland”s production is full of heavy bass beats and little curlicue background synth noises. There’s some nice singing from Timberlake here, however, and he leaves the falsetto on the shelf for this one for the most part.
Similarly to many of those tracks, at around 5 minutes, the song morphs into a slightly different, slower tune with Timbaland repeating “She killed me with that coochie-coo.”
It”s not an instant hit and I”m not sure radio will gravitate toward it. Radio seems content to keep playing “Mirrors” over “The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2″s” first single, the far catchier “Take Back The Night.”
“The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2” comes out Sept. 27.
Are you knocked out by “TKO?”