Timbaland featuring Mumford & Sons “Not My Happiness”
For those who felt like Timbaland has lost his mojo a bit in recent years, the super-producer shows that he’s still got a few neat sonic tricks left in his arsenal with his latest Timbaland Thursdays offering “Not My Happiness”.
An interesting turn for the inspirational that veers dangerously close to hot mess disaster due to the track’s sub-par quality and Tim’s somewhat clumsy songwriting and even more awkward Auto-Tuned shower singing, “Not My Happiness” is ultimately saved by way of the hooky brilliance that bubbles forth from its clever Mumford & Sons sample swipe (source: the English folk rockers’ heart-crushing Sigh No More entry “White Blank Page”), a mesmerizing aural stamp that elevates the emotional weight of Timbo’s sobering message (“I don’t worship wealth and fame/ It means nothing when you die”).
Of course the track begs for the church-raised expertise of Yolanda Adams, Mary Mary, Mary J., Fantasia, or whatever choir Kirk Franklin is pushing these days to bring some real vocal power to the melodically gorgeous harmonic wails on display here, but as rough-draft sketches go, Timbaland is definitely on to something potent here, alerting us, amazingly for the very first time, to the potential awesomeness of a gospel-based Timbo collection.
DL: “Not My Happiness” (alt)
BONUS DL: Mumford & Sons “White Blank Page (Live On WXPN)” (alt)
