He’s back.

Few people have ever built expectations higher than Justin Timberlake in the six-year aftermath of “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” It seems suitable — pun intended — that “The 20/20 Experience” marks his most ambitious project to date.

The sweeping string overture at the beginning of opening track “Pusher Love Girl” makes a definite statement: This is Justin Timberlake for adults. This is Justin Timberlake as a luxury brand. If he’s going to dance for you now, it’s going to be in a pair of $1,200 Christian Louboutin shoes.

But past the first 30 seconds, “Pusher Love Girl” takes off into smoking hot, silky smooth ’70s funk, and from then on, “20/20” doesn’t stay in one place for long. “Don’t Hold the Wall” momentarily brings it back to boy-band, five-part harmonies before switching gears completely into a trippy, Indian-infused club track that could single-handedly cause the next baby boom. Sandwiched between these two, the mixture of disco and big band in “Suit & Tie” suddenly makes more sense.

If you haven’t gotten the message from the black-and-white Grammy telecast or the traveling brass band, the first three tracks make the mission of “20/20” clear. Timberlake has reached into the history of music, hand-picked his favorite influences and made them completely new. “20/20” may qualify as the first-ever anthropological study you could have sex to.

By the time the album’s opening blitz lands with “Strawberry Bubblegum,” it’s moved into R&B and pop sounds that seem more familiar coming from Timberlake. “Tunnel Vision” feels like a variation on Timberlake’s roots, layering vocals reminiscent of “Justified” over the kind of Timbaland-produced track that could have fit in on “FutureSex/LoveSounds.”

But Timberlake’s experimentation doesn’t end with the first half of the album. “That Girl” brings rat-pack vibes to back up the dressed-up look of 2013’s Timberlake, and “Let the Groove Get In” explodes with Latin energy.

“Mirrors” carries it home as the all-around best track, a fusion of every facet of Timberlake’s catalogue into one stunner ballad worth every second of its eight minutes. Following such a powerhouse of a song, the distant, bare-bones “Blue Ocean Floor” serves as the perfect winding down, a temporary sign-off until the second volume of “20/20” drops later this year.

So maybe “The 20/20 Experience” isn’t what you expected for Justin Timberlake’s comeback. Maybe you wanted radio-ready singles instead of jams and freestyles that clock in at nearly 10 minutes. Maybe you wanted more “FutureSex/LoveSounds.”

But maybe some of us forgot the point of “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” which was to create something nobody had heard before — something that set itself apart from everything else out there in sound and production. Maybe we’ve forgotten that Justin Timberlake has never settled for churning out more of the same thing and that “FutureSex/LoveSounds” seemed unexpected and strange, too, before we had six years to digest it.

“20/20” takes just as many risks as its predecessor did, but it approaches them from a new angle. If “FutureSex/LoveSounds” was a glimpse into the future of pop music, “The 20/20 Experience” is the best parts of the past. If “FutureSex/LoveSounds” was for starting at the club and taking it back to the bedroom, “The 20/20 Experience” is for staying in bed for weeks. Essentially, “20/20” is the settled-down, grown-up next step for a settled-down, grown-up artist.

“20/20” does have its imperfections, including its occasional veering into self-indulgence — the full minute of a woman climaxing in “Spaceship Coupe” springs to mind — but ultimately, we’re willing to indulge him. By now, Timberlake has earned that much.

So even though the intro to “That Girl” edges toward cheesy with its introduction of imaginary bootlegger jazz band Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids, the shoutout to his home state brings it all back to the theme of “20/20”: hindsight.

The world has known Justin Timberlake for most of his life, and he knows this album is bigger than him. After years of anticipation, “20/20” was going to be a pop culture landmark regardless of its content, and Timberlake chose to use that space not to simply cash in on nostalgia or reuse the same formulas. He used that space to write a love letter to music.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we missed him.

Grade: A

Kaci Yoder is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Baton Rouge.