Pusher Love Girl
2013 song by Justin Timberlake
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"Pusher Love Girl" is a song by American singer Justin Timberlake from his third studio album, The 20/20 Experience (2013). It was written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland, and J-Roc, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy. An ode to the "intoxicating effects" of love and sex, "Pusher Love Girl" is a slow-tempo R&B song that goes through several stylistic shifts during its eight-minute duration. It opens with an orchestral intro before moving into its "funky main section". The song concludes with an outro in which Timberlake raps over futuristic hip-hop beats, comparing several narcotics to the love of his significant other.
| "Pusher Love Girl" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Justin Timberlake | |
| from the album The 20/20 Experience | |
| Released | March 15, 2013 |
| Recorded | 2012 |
| Studio | Larrabee (North Hollywood) |
| Genre | R&B |
| Length | 8:02 |
| Label | RCA |
| Songwriters |
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| Producers |
|
"Pusher Love Girl" received generally positive reviews from music critics, many of whom regarded it as one of the best songs on The 20/20 Experience. Some critics, however, were critical of the song's length and certain lyrics. Following the release of The 20/20 Experience, and due to strong digital downloads, it reached number 15 on the South Korean singles chart, number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number 122 on the UK singles chart.
Timberlake debuted "Pusher Love Girl" live during his comeback performance at DirecTV's Super Night in February 2013. He also performed the song at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, the SXSW MySpace Secret Show, and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He also included it on the set lists for three of his concert tours: the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour (2013), The 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013–2015), and The Forget Tomorrow World Tour (2024–2025). At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards (2014), "Pusher Love Girl" won the award for Best R&B Song.
Background
In September 2006, Timberlake released his second album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which was critically and commercially acclaimed and spawned six singles, including the worldwide hits "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".[1] After wrapping up a worldwide concert tour to support the album in 2007, Timberlake took a break from his music career to focus on acting.[2][3] In addition, Timberlake worked behind the scenes with his record label Tennman Records (founded in 2007) and his production team The Y's (founded in 2008). He also provided guest vocals on several singles by other artists, such as "4 Minutes" by Madonna and "Carry Out" by Timbaland.[3] In 2010, Timberlake's manager, Johnny Wright, began conversations with the singer about working on new music. The two had general decisions about ways to release new music, because according to Wright, "a lot of the physical record sellers were gone, by the time we've got music again we need to think about different ways to deliver it".[4]
Wright proposed a promotion based on an application or releasing a new song every month. Timberlake, however, was not interested in returning to music; instead, he continued to focus on his film career. Around the "late part of May, first week in June" 2012, Timberlake invited Wright to dinner and revealed that he had spent the last couple of nights in the studio with Timbaland working on new material. Wright was shocked at the revelation, telling Billboard that he "wasn't prepared for that". The two immediately began marketing plans for how the album should be promoted and when it should be released. Ultimately, they agreed "to do this in a shorter period of time, so let's put the single out and [release the album] seven or eight weeks after that—make it a short window, and because we have such a short window, we have to make a big impact".[4]
In August 2012, producer Jim Beanz reported that Timberlake had started work on his new music project. However, at that time, shortly after the announcement, Timberlake's publicist revealed that there were no current plans for a new Timberlake album, affirming instead that Timberlake was working with Timbaland on songs for his upcoming project Shock Value III.[3] Although originally planned for release in October 2012, its date was postponed because of the singer's wedding to actress Jessica Biel. Wright stated that although the project involved artists who are primarily Timberlake's friends, it was tough to keep it a secret, so they used codenames.[4] Timberlake revealed the track listing for The 20/20 Experience on February 6, 2013; "Pusher Love Girl" was revealed as the opening track.[5] The album was released on March 15, 2013, by RCA Records.[6]
Composition
"Pusher Love Girl" was written by Timberlake, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, and James Fauntleroy, and produced by Timbaland, Timberlake, and Harmon.[9] It is a slow-tempo R&B song with an approximate length of eight minutes and two seconds.[10][11] The song "simmers" on an "elastic" soul groove that contains "retro-synth" hooks, hand claps, horns and a "squelchy" bass line.[11][12][13] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard called the song "a more seasoned version" of "Señorita", the opening track of Timberlake's debut album, Justified (2002).[14] The song is an ode to the "intoxicating effects" of love and sex.[15] 411mania's Jeremy Thomas commented that the lyrics are not in the "tortured, emo-driven" context that listeners could expect.[16] Thomas described the song as a "smooth, laid back jam" in which Timberlake "eases his way around" a few "clunky" metaphors and "skillfully navigates several much better ones" in a song that "sets the stage for what to expect from the rest of the album".[16]
Nate Jones of Popdust cited the introduction of "Pusher Love Girl" as being "straight from a Hollywood classic".[7] Allan Raible of ABC News wrote that the "stringed fanfare" is something you would expect to hear on the red carpet of an awards ceremony.[17] Jim Farber of the New York Daily News called the opening "classic enough" for Michael Jackson.[18] After the "sweeping" orchestral intro, the song transcends into a "funky main section", which, according to Helen Brown of The Daily Telegraph, is a "sweet slice of funk-soul seduction".[11][19] According to Thomas, "Pusher Love Girl" starts off like a "classic Sinatra song": with a "rise of strings" that "hit a pitch before dropping into a neo-soul sound".[16]
Five minutes into the song, "Pusher Love Girl" morphs into a spoken-word outro where Timberlake raps "Childish Gambino style" over futuristic hip-hop beats. Timberlake compares narcotics, such as heroin, cocaine, plum wine, MDMA and nicotine, to the love of his significant other.[7][8][20] Kitty Empire, writing for The Observer, commented that Timberlake's list of narcotics sound "tempting".[21] Youssef stated that the outro may seem "bloated" to many, but that it enhances the atmosphere and "cross-genre" feel that Timberlake and Timbaland wanted, while also "building on and completing the ideas" that Frank Ocean experimented with on his debut album, Channel Orange (2012).[8] Sarah Dean of The Huffington Post wrote that Timberlake channels his "inner mid-'80s" Prince during this period of the song.[22] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Timberlake raps with "surprising authority".[19]
Vocal style
Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Joey Guerra stated that Timberlake "hits that unmistakable falsetto" from the first chorus of "Pusher Love Girl".[13] The song, as noted by Sobhi Youssef of Sputnikmusic introduces Timberlake's "beautiful" falsetto at "the apex of his game".[8] MusicOMH's David Meller wrote that Timberlake's vocal had "retained some of its boyish appeal but now has a measured, kind of sophisticated charm",[23] while Dean declared that his "trademark falsetto" sounds "as-good-as-ever".[22] The "street-savvy middle range" of Timberlake's vocals further separate him from his boy band start with NSYNC, according to Sean Daly of the Tampa Bay Times.[24]
According to Brown, in the song, Timberlake sounds like he "inhaled" 1970s Stevie Wonder, "breathing it out" as the song "disperses into something spacily 21st century".[11] Rolling Stone reviewer Jody Rosen noted that Timberlake borrows Curtis Mayfield's falsetto and Wonder's chord changes in the song.[15] Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald wrote that Timberlake "snatches swagger" from Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Al Green soul "with dashes of Frank Sinatra swing and Prince's heavy breathing".[25] Empire wrote that "Walt Disney meets Quincy Jones" on "Pusher Love Girl" and that the song rivals English space rock band Spiritualized for "dovetailing affection with addiction".[21]
Critical reception
"Pusher Love Girl" received generally positive reviews from music critics. MSN Music's Robert Christgau cited it as a highlight of The 20/20 Experience,[26] while Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club called it the best track on the album.[27] Billboard writer Jason Lipshutz called the song an "extended glide", commenting that even though the song includes some dubious lyrics, Timberlake's "easy delivery will leave listeners hopelessly, er, addicted".[14] Jean Bentley of Hollywood.com write that the intro to "Pusher Love Girl" is "very much in tune" with the "retro-soul vibe" of Timberlake's recent live performances. She wrote that it is one of the catchiest songs on The 20/20 Experience and commented that it "most certainly" would be his "second or third single".[28] The Boston Globe reviewer James Reed wrote that "Pusher Love Girl" begins the album on a "blissed-out high".[29]
Nate Jones of Popdust stated that the album version of "Pusher Love Girl" improves on the live version that was performed at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. He commented that the "instrumental thump, slightly plodding in the live versions, tightens up until it's propelling the song forward" with an "elephantine self-assurance", clearing "enough space" for Timberlake's Prince impersonation to work "out its sweet shimmy".[7] He commented that it might be "slightly uncouth" to compare "your lover to a drug pusher", but "when you're doing it with harmonies like these, we don't think she'll mind."[7] According to ABC News' Allan Raible, the lyrics to "Pusher Love Girl" are "very calculated" and the drug references are meant to give Timberlake, an artist who "somehow lives in a Tiger Beat bubble", "edge".[17] Raible wrote that in the song, Timberlake is "supposed to be the bad boy with the pseudo-'50s smile and the charm to match", a comparison that was "tired" when Roxy Music used it in 1975.[17] He concluded by stating that it is "past even being a dead horse by now".[17]
Nick Krewen, writing for the Toronto Star, dismissed "Pusher Love Girl" as a "dull dirge" of a song that "plods along at a midtempo slog lasting five minutes, before a false ending and equally dull coda drag our carcasses another 400 meters after its initial impact". He wrote that "just when we feel we've escaped with minor scratches", Timberlake repeats the line "I'm a junkie for your love" ad nauseam "until the song reaches its merciful resolution".[30] Robert Copsey of Digital Spy wrote that "Pusher Love Girl" begins "perky enough", but that is "hard to justify" its length when it feels repetitive after the first three minutes and "self-indulgent thereafter".[31] HitFix reviewer Melinda Newman was critical of the lyric "hydroponic jelly bean", commenting: "Is there anyone else on God's green earth that could pull off calling someone that?"[12]
Accolades
| Organization | Year | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammy Awards | 2014 | Best R&B Song | Won | [32] |
Live performances and cover versions
Timberlake premiered "Pusher Love Girl" as part of the set list for his comeback performance at DirecTV's Super Night in New Orleans on February 2, 2013.[33] Timberlake next performed the song live at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 11, for which he received a standing ovation.[34] Billboard ranked Timberlake's performance of "Pusher Love Girl" at the ceremony as one of the night's best performances.[35] He also performed the song live at the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on March 12, 2013[36] and at the SXSW MySpace Secret Show on March 17, 2013.[37] During the performance of the latter, Timberlake danced at "full tilt", while "owning his own signature falsetto like a seasoned maestro conducting a symphony orchestra", as noted by Maurice Bobb, a writer for MTV News.[38]
In celebration of passing one million subscribers on YouTube, American a cappella group Pentatonix uploaded a video of them performing a live rendition of "Pusher Love Girl". According to William Goodman of CBS News, their version of the song "reinforces why they've hit this milestone".[39] The song was also included in the set lists for Timberlake and Jay-Z's co-headlining Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour (2013),[40] The 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013–2015),[41] and The Forget Tomorrow World Tour (2024–2025).[42]
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of The 20/20 Experience.[9]
- Locations
- Vocals recorded and mixed at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, California
- Horns and strings recorded at EastWest Studios, Los Angeles, California
- Personnel
- Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley – producer, songwriter
- Justin Timberlake – Mixer, producer, songwriter, vocal producer, vocal arranger
- Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon – keyboards, producer, songwriter
- James Fauntleroy – songwriter
- Chris Godbey – engineer, mixer
- Jimmy Douglass – mixer
- Alejandro Baima – assistant engineer
- Benjamin Wright – strings
- The Benjamin Wright Orchestra – strings
- Elliott Ives – guitar
- The Regiment – horns
- Reggie Dozler – horns and strings recorder
Charts
| Chart (2013) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| South Korea (Gaon)[43] | 15 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[44] | 122 |
| UK Hip Hop/R&B (OCC)[45] | 20 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[46] | 64 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[47] | 21 |