Following the disappointing performance of “Take Back the Night,” Justin Timberlake has dropped another underwhelming single from his upcoming album, The 20/20 Experience (2 of 2). Like several of the songs on The 20/20 Experience, “TKO” is largely a retread of Timberlake’s past work with longtime collaborator Timbaland, opening with a tired hype-man routine that finds the producer idiotically chanting, “She kill me with that coo-coochie-coochie-coo,” over a familiar midtempo shuffle circa 2006. The second half of the seven-minute track ventures into slightly more sonically interesting territory, filled out with the beatboxing and plucky strings we’ve come to expect from the two Tims. The song’s lyrics add little to an already massive pantheon of pop songs built around a love-as-boxing metaphor: “I’m out for the count/Yeah, girl, you knock me out/With a TKO.” Here’s hoping the rest of the album’s got some hidden punches.
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