As plenty of people have noted, Justin Timberlake no longer glides effortlessly through the celebrity sphere. Timberlake has been building up to the release of his new solo album Everything I Thought It Was for a while now, and he’s in a vastly different place than he was when he last dropped. For one thing, the new album is the six-years-later follow up to Man Of The Woods, Timberlake’s first widely derided mega-flop. For another, the public view of Timberlake’s past actions with Britney Spears and Janet Jackson has shifted significantly. Timberlake keeps apologizing for things and then saying that he apologizes for nothing. It’s messy. But narrative is one thing, and music is another. So how is the album?

The early singles were not promising. Timberlake already released the songs “Selfish” and “Drown,” and he debuted his other tracks “Sanctified” and “No Angels” in TV performances. A couple of nights ago, Timberlake brought out the other four *NSYNC members at his LA show, and they performed together for the first time since the 2013 VMAs, debuting the new reunion track “Paradise.” Besides that *NSYNC reunion, the new album features collaborations with Afrobeats star Fireboy DML and rapper Tobe Nwigwe. Timberlake recorded it with old collaborators Timbaland and Danja, as well as big-deal hitmakers like Louis Bell, Cirkut, Calvin Harris, and Ryan Tedder. None of this sounds promising, but I have to say that Everything I Thought It Was is, on first listen, a lot better than I expected.

It’s not great. Let’s make that clear. You can hear the desperation on the album, the eagerness to please. There are some awkward sing-rapping attempts, and the record lasts for more than an hour, which means it’s at least twice as long as it needs to be. Justin Timberlake isn’t making big, bold statements anymore. Instead, he’s playing catchup, riding sleek and streaming-friendly pop grooves. But many of those sleek grooves are pretty effective, and a few tracks, “Paradise” in particular, are genuinely pretty. We’re not giving Everything I Thought It Was a proper review, and I don’t anticipate listening to the album too many times, but it’s not the radioactive disaster that some thought it was. Consider this your Comment Party. Below, stream the album and let us know how you feel about it.

Everything I Thought It Was is out now on RCA.