Countdown: Justin Timberlake to release music in 3 days

"I'm ready," Justin Timberlake says in a video released Thursday.

By Randall Roberts

Jan. 10, 2013 12 AM PT

Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Justin Timberlake fans have had a whirlwind late evening/early morning since the musician/actor/comedian/Memphian dropped an intriguing Tweet teasing new information at 9:01 a.m. Thursday. That hour arrived, and despite speculation that Timberlake’s first new solo music would be arriving immediately, he sent instead another missive with similarly veiled data:

“To whom it may concern...I think I’M READY! #JT2013 https://tmbr.lk/imready”, he wrote, directing fans to a short clip of himself entering a recording studio and walking through its hallways. In voiceover, Timberlake explains the delay of new music thusly:

“‘Somebody asked me the other day, ‘Are you just done with music?’ It means more to me than anybody else in the world. Look. I’ve only done two albums in ten years. That’s the way I really look at it. What does the next decade mean for me? I’m the one who sits in -- is obsessive about it before you even get to hear it.”

He continues: “As close as I get to it, I don’t know that I could physically torture myself that much year in and year out, and expect it to fulfill me the way that it does and the way that it is right now. I don’t want to put out anything that I feel like is something that I don’t love. You just don’t get that every day. You have to wait for it.”

As he finishes this monologue, Timberlake enters a vocal booth and steps up to a microphone. There is a pause, then he says, “I’m ready.”