Although Lance Bass has become a late-night punch line for wanting to be pop’s first astronaut, his ’N Sync bandmate Justin Timberlake’s dream of solo success is even more improbable. If you lined up all the boy-band members who have had failed solo careers, you’d have — well, a very long line. Yes, Jermaine Jackson, Ralph Tresvant, Jordan Knight and Chico DeBarge, we’re thinking of you. Then again, to paraphrase Michael Jackson, Timberlake is not like other guys: He clearly has the most talent and charisma of the lot. Underscoring his love for black music, he seeks assistance from ruling pop producers the Neptunes (employed by Britney Spears last year), who could secure Carrot Top a place atop the charts if they wanted. Further behind-the-console assistance comes from Timbaland and Brian McKnight, the latter handling the album’s climactic strings-assisted ballad, “Never Again.”But it’s the Nepunes’ clattering, state-of-the-art production on the album-opening “Señorita” and the first single, “Like I Love You,” that most distinguishes Justified from Timberlake’s band, making ’N Sync’s 2001 release, Celebrity, sound positively leaden and outdated. Unlike some other singers, Timberlake never seems a puppet of his hot producers. In control of his own chameleon-esque vocals, he also cowrote every track, contrasting contempo music tricks with retro-pop that recalls Prince, Stevie Wonder and, most obviously, Thriller-era Jackson — a ploy that fails only on the near-incestuous-sounding Janet Jackson duet, “(And She Said) Take Me Now.” True, there are some atrocious lyrics: Even Bass would roll his eyes at “I wanna be your sky/So blue and high!” But it seems that Timberlake, after all, will become the first ’N Syncer to go stellar.