Usher - Classic or Dud?

haha xpost

I just remember Dan saying Justin essentially stole everything from Usher, or tried to. What this means in the larger scheme of like/dislike I don't recall.

Nothing else of his has really caught my ear.

do not fuck over tlc women.

The Shins joke was alright. Don't worry the rock rap issue will never die. I am surprised that everyone is so bored with the issue that no one has gotten all lathered about that "Guns of Brixton" sample song.

"U Got It Bad" was pretty middling until it got that odd 2-step-rip-off rejig.

Ginuwine is the guy I've always unilaterally despised.

MILLION-SELLING 'CONFESSIONS'!

R&B star USHER has sold over a million copies of his new album in the US in just one week.

The singer tops the charts with 'Confessions', ending Norah Jones' 'Feels Like Home''s seven-week reign at the top.

'Confessions'' 1.1 million sales mean it has now surpassed 'Feels Like Home' as the year's fastest-selling album.

Usher and Jones, whose album sold 1.02 million in its first week, now stand as the only two artists to debut in seven-figure territory since *N Sync's 'Celebrity' sold nearly 1.9 million copies its first week in July 2001.

Usher's label, Arista Records, have revealed 'Confessions' is its biggest release in the label's 30-year history, beating the 689,000 first-week sales posted by Notorious BIG's posthumous 1997 album 'Life After Death'.

Usher has sold nearly ten million albums in the United States to date, according to SoundScan.

----

Didnt Justin peak out at #2 with justified?

This is true. Everyone in the music industry lives in a great big house. MTV will be filming soon for a reality series. You will be chosen as the special guest star if you post on the Kanye West thread.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/urbannews/040304_usher.shtml

Usher called Justin a "follower" on Radio 1 last month, and challenged him to a dance-off in some other interview.

Which means, of course, that they'll be releasing a massively-hyped duet in the next eight months.

Ah, I'm glad that someone finally agrees with me!

That he isn't getting as much attention as Justin Timberlake did for Justified (which sold a LOT less) is really starting to piss me off.

Usher seems to take himself waaay too seriously. I mean, even in the "Yeah" video, he flashes a lot of somber facial expressions, like he Really Means It, and the rest of the album is all ballads. I mean, he's a good singer and dancer at all, but the way he puffs himself up as an Artist, you'd think he was a writer/producer on the level of R. Kelly or even Prince.

Around the time he arrived was the period of time r&b music really started going south. It was already headed there but the arrival of him and similar artists brought forth the downfall. Nowadays most of it on the airwaves is unlistenable.

Is that supposed to be some sort of diss to Usher?

He is extremely nasal and throaty and lacks dynamics. He has to strain for a lot of his highs as well.

Don't you listen to metal? Why are you concerned with supposedly objective evaluations of singing ability?

As I said...it's NOT really necessarily necessary to be a great singer to sell a good r&B song. I wouldn't say Al Green was *technically* a great singer, yet I totally feel his music. But while we were on the subject of his singing ability, I thought I would comment on that.

And "Throwback" is good but it should be much better.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Al Green was a great performer and a great R&B artist, but in terms of TECHNIQUE, he was nothing amazing. That is all I said, and it is true. He had the ability to sell a song that made up for it, though.

Do you REALLY want me to out-geek you on this one and give you vocal specifics?

I'm taking bets on how much longer before "Uh" mentions how much he loves crunk + grime. Will the weight of the ILM hive mind overcome his defenses soon? Its not a question of "if" but "when."

Tim, I think Throwback is great!

I consider Timberlake a truly ironic joke. His music reeks of sheer deriviative crap, and I wouldn't be arsed to sit through more than 5 minutes of it.

"Uh," I'm interested as to why you are afraid to read the article.

In any sense, I found the article to be somewhat stupid. It seems to be using one person's critique of Timberlake to represent everybody's, which is just stupid, plus the whole article is rather presumptuous about why people actually bash Timberlake in the media. It's a completely silly, elitist article, that fails to comprehend that just MAYBE the other side has a valid point.

I know I argue "rough" in here, but I would never SERIOUSLY attribute to someone a personal defect because they happened to like an artist I did. Half of my first posts were just for my own amusement.

http://www.angelfire.com/band2/slayerrobfl/images/ugly3.jpg

These days its boo-oooo for me.

I realized recently, mainly because of the weird emotionally manipulative qualities of "Burn" and "Confessions part 2" that Ursher really reminds a lot of a psycho ex-roommate and I think that that's where some of my dislike of Usher is coming from.

Surely performance and bringing a feeling to a song is a kind of technique all by itself. Most ppl can't evaluate or even care much for this def of technique you are talking about.

I am mainly concerned with his hypnotizing moves, though, and can't really seem to recall any of his songs that ever really moved me at the moment.

Also, the copy of Confessions I downloaded had Usher's cover of Phil Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart" from the Tarzan soundtrack hiding in it, which was special.

especially due to how easy it is to fix wrong notes in the studio.

Even by R&B singing standards, he sucks. I'd rather listen to a Lenny Williams or a Philip Bailey or even a Luther anyday.

Of course that's a large piece of being a good vocalist/performer, but in a genre that's so largely focused on the vocalist, it definitely can't be the whole piece of the pie. I don't feel Usher when he sings, either. I'm not saying he's soul-less, but he sounds that way because of his dynamic-depleted singing.

We're getting off-topic, though. All I mentioned is that Usher was a flat, dynamicless singer. I mentioned notes being fixed in the studio to show that merely staying on pitch on recording doesn't mean you're on pitch when you sing, since the studio has helped even Anthony Kiedis sound on pitch at times.

Of course I'll get painted like technical geek now, but I don't think character is the whole piece of the pie whatsoever with an R&B performer.

I can be passionate about taking a dump, and really put my heart and soul into it, but the end result is still shit. Some genres do not require as much ability as others, but I'd prefer a more capable vocalist who has both the magic and the ability like a Lenny Williams.

What's with this overanalyzation of Usher, anyways? I could sum him up in very few words: tired, unenthused boredom.

for the record, I truly enjoy Alicia Keys (though I prefer her first cd.)

The direction I was taking was mocking sarcasm at you for completely misrepresenting me, hoping you would pick up on the fact that you had actually gotten my stance completely wrong.

Christina, on the other hand, I have respect for as a singer, but I just overall dislike her music.

I want to be Alicia Key's loveslave, though.

I inferred from that that you actually thought those two virtues meant a damn thing by themselves.

On paper, he has everything: looks, voice, dancing, etc. But something about him somehow manages to make all of these qualities dull and uncharismatic. Even with him talking up his new womanizer image, there's never any sense of danger, excitement, or sexuality to his songs.

pop pop!

http://www.zshare.net/audio/4821554ed68081/

i actually kinda like this. wish it wasn't as t-pain-y, but whatever. i'm sure this will be the "can't tell me nothing"/"dumb it down" type "internet first single". luda kills it i think.

Dud. He has an average voice at best, but that's not a biggie considering some R&B legends weren't legendary singers.

His material, though, has always lacked. "You Make Me Wanna" was decent, as well as "My Way", but nothing all that great--in comparison to some of the other dreck r&b on the radio at the time, it was like Lenny Williams, but it's still painfully average.

A lot of his other tunes were quite boring, and "Yea" is absolute crap.

So....he's not like, the worst of all time, but...next.

ok RONG. usher's 5 best singles stack up w/ anyone's 5 best singles since he's been around.

You have a point there, except for the fact that his best five singles are still middle of the road in terms of quality :)

Besides, I don't rank music in comparative terms. Even if all 3,445,433 other artists in the world were inferior to Usher, I wouldn't have to be obligated to consider his music quality if I felt it didn't stand up on its own terms.

You have a point there, except for the fact that his best five singles are still middle of the road in terms of quality :)

-- Bo Jackson Overdrive, Monday, November 12, 2007 5:26 PM (Monday, November 12, 2007 5:26 PM) Bookmark Link

Ban.

Agree to disagree? :)

usher's 5 best singles stack up w/ anyone's 5 best singles since he's been around.

Uh, no. Justin Timberlake's best ten singles >>>>> Usher's best five

eww...I'dtake Usher over Powder any day of the week.

so this album proves Radiohead still rules.

-- Bo Jackson Overdrive, Monday, November 12, 2007 9:48 AM (Monday, November 12, 2007 9:48 AM) Bookmark Link

"U Got It Bad" & "Caught Up" = perfect songs. Anyone who can deny the power of a song with the adlib "her body was so tight, I'm lookin' for her in the daytime with a flashlight" or that "I'm your my man and you're my girl, I'm gonna tell it to the whole wide world/ Baby say/ I'm your girl and you're my man, promise to love you the best I can" breakdown is not to be trusted.

burn, yeah, u got it bad, u remind me, my way, you make me wanna are just as great as like i love you, cry me a river, rock your body, senorita, my love and lovestoned

tape store, i think i fall somwhere in your universe re: timberlake, i.e. i think he is one of the preeminent hitmakers of his time, but idk futuresex is just a B for me, and i don't think the singles off that album come anywhere near the (nearly untoppable) like i love you/cry me a river/rock your body trio.

for me— in terms of solo singles— timberlake's GREAT singles go 4-5 deep whereas usher's goes 6-7 deep, but i think they are both worthy of each other's company.

"U Got It Bad" and "Burn" are both nice, though both could use nicer production (Burn's percussion already sounds dated)

But neither touches "What Goes Around...Comes Around" and "Cry Me a River." (I know everyone will disagree, but...) Timberlake sounds so much more soulful than Usher. All four tracks are well-written, but from a production standpoint, only the latter two pass.

"You Make Me Wanna" has potential, but unfortunately, Usher's generally bland delivery ruins it. Sure, he occasionally tries to pepper the chorus with some vocal gymnastics, but it's not very endearing. Compare to, say, "Summer Love" (which rides on an equally repetitive but infectious hook). Unlike Usher, Timberlake pulls out his swagger and completely nails the vocal.

I love "My Way" and "Confessions Pt. 2," the former primarily for nostalgic reasons (though it's still a nice track, albeit a bit forgetable) and the latter for it's verses (i fall for lots of piano-based tracks). I'm not completely sure where they stand in relation to Timberlake's singles, but I do know that I listen to "Like I Love You" and "Lovestoned" more than either.

i'll give you production on timberlake songs> production on usher songs in terms of progressivisms (and if production is what make timberlake songs for you— esp. new ones— i can't really fault that), but in terms of sheer quality, i think usher worked the pop-r&B sound of the late 90s-early 2000s pretty well. his tracks are usually all pretty spare (though i might be missing something egregious here, "yeah" not included), but i think he sounds great over your average acoustic guitar/piano/paper drum beat.

"Burn" sounded dated when it came out, which isn't a strike against it. It always felt like a tiredish retread of "U Got It Bad", though, which is a strike.

Anyways, you are both ignoring the splendid BLOOD DIAMONDS of "Caught Up". Those horns! That bassline! Those bizarre lyrics! Those crazy adlibs!

The video where he finally goes "fuck it, I'm going to stop pretending I'm not an MJ wannabe"!

also "yeah" is better club song than anything timberlake has done, though idk how much of that is of usher's doing.

Actually, now that I think of it, "Caught Up" itself is the moment Ursh finally gives into every MJ-wannabe impulse he's ever had.

..as "Like I Love You" is to JT.

usher could reduce timberlake to cinder if they showed up on stage together. timberlake is intelligent, inspired, enthusiastic but in comparison he's such a gawky amateur he might as well be david byrne.

Who's David Burn?

Alright, news media, pick the doll you think is nicer.

that's a weird field. lol @ shipley dropping "ursher" in a sentence.

er weird thread. got "minimal techno" on my mind.

Fact: In the Jackin' Pop poll, FutureSex/LoveSounds was the only high-ranked album by a white artist to score better among black voters than white voters.

even beat the Hold Steady? Wowsers.

Futuresex did a good job of working around and with the dork factor than Justified, which tried to pretend it didn't exist.

I think Usher could take him

dancing:

chris brown>usher>timberlake

"chris breezy"

dude wtf chris brown's mtv performance was a hitler impersation followed by hopping from table to table like the fountains at epcot DO NOT SETTLE

Futuresex did a good job of working around and with the dork factor than Justified, which tried to pretend it didn't exist.

-- da croupier, Monday, November 12, 2007 10:33 PM (Monday, November 12, 2007 10:33 PM) Bookmark Link

qft

"Yeah" is possibly my least-favourite recording ever.

http://www.arcspace.com/books/ban/shigeru_ban/1ban.jpg

yes that deserves a SHIGERU BAN.

"love in the club" is kind of hot

i don't think this album is going to top confessions sales-wise though, but he's going in an interesting direction. "moving mountains" is interesting.

"love in the club" is kind of hot

like water is kind of wet

'love in the club' is SO serious

and to weigh in on the jt vs. usher convo above: i feel like usher is decidedly more consistent, more 'good' shit, but thus far i think jt has more 'great' shit.

would love to see friendly rivalry though

not into the new single.

R&B star Usher left Kent festival goers unimpressed after shouting out "hello Manchester" to the packed crowd.

The singer was opening Radio 1's Big Weekend festival in Maidstone, Kent, when the blunder happened, prompting some audience members to boo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7394709.stm

"trading places" off of the new album is the gayest song ever

oh shit

"I'm always on the top, tonight I'm on the bottom" nh

lmafo at this song

pretty good if not rote production from tricky but god damn these are some of the most retarded lyrics i've heard

http://www.westga.edu/~jhasbun/charge.gif

if "charge.gif" means im otm than tape store otm

plz note y-position

p.s. happy birthday

erm, birthday eve

ha im a journalism major dude

and thank you for bday wishes

"this ain't sex" is great, nice groove

lol @ snl performance

his hypemanning for jeezy was ridiculous and the rest was a total snooze

totally forced as well

pretty good if not rote production from tricky but god damn these are some of the most retarded lyrics i've heard

You mean L.O.S./Carlos McKinney/L.O.S. da Maestro/etc.

timberlake>>>usher.

obv timberlakes lyrics arent exactly sly (or even angie*) stone but usher still doesnt really seem like hes trying to outdo his competition these days. i like in this club well enough but it just seems tired. a song about being in the club doesnt seem like the best idea to launch a comeback with. interested to hear the album in any case.

*on a good day

i'd say usher singles>>justin singles, but i'm sure justin's albums are better, and i will say, i don't think justin would have given as listless a performance on such a stage as usher did on snl

the first parental advisory album i ever remember my mom letting me get was 'my way'

back when blockbuster was still selling cds

maybe it was specs actually

i'd say usher singles>>justin singles, but i'm sure justin's albums are better,

I'd actually say it's the other way around, even though I think Justin Timberlake is an insufferable douche he has some unfuckwithable singles ("Like I Love You", "My Love," "Until The End Of Time", "Lovestoned," "Senorita").. as does Usher obviously, but a lot of his best songs are album tracks ("Can U Help Me," "Throwback," "Before I Met You," etc. etc....) and I think Confessions & 8701 (his best album) are >>>>> FS/LS and Justified. Not to say Justin doesn't have his share of album tracks ("Sexy Ladies", "Last Night,"), but yeah. Also, Usher is a waaaaaayyyyyy better vocalist, better dancer and just better all-around personality... I think Justin's album's are carried by the Production - he's pretty expendable, and actually a lot of his shit would be better if sung by someone else because his voice is REALLY annoying sometimes - whereas Usher takes command of his material.

but I've never forgiven Justin for boob-gate so I may be biased

really though what Timberlake song is fucking with this one:

really it may just come down to what you want in your music, obviously Timberlake is more "pop" so.... it's kind of not a good comparison besides the obvious MALE SUPERSTARS WHO DANCE thing.

honestly Tape Store I'm curious do you think Justin Timberlake is a necessary part of FutureSex/LoveSongs or that another capable vocalist could sing those same songs and it'd still be your fave album of the decade? Because I don't feel like his voice is special, and if anything his 'persona' detracts from the songs a little bit (to me anyway, I always have trouble buying Timberlake as the cool womanizer he paints himself as in a lot of songs...)

FutureSex/LoveSounds**

im sorry if this was posted elsewhere but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b90Cf6ARscc

And now I'll always have a little voice say "Ursher" in my head. That Yeah song. Urg.

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, February 23, 2004 3:58 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

^^

so fucking weird that this thread was revived today but not because of "Papers"

we talked about it on the r&b thread dude

i know but...and no offense to cad, but that rockafire thing was all the rage on this board 2 years ago, it's just funny timing, what are the odds

"papers" is seriously the shit though

xp that's fine i had never seen it because i don't really pay attention to youtube but i was in tears earlier tonite

http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/usher/news/229041-usher-slates-uk-rb-acts-again?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Legendary R&B singer Usher has said that the recent acts from the UK to top the American charts are bringing the value of R&B music down.

The OMG hit-maker said that British acts such as Taio Cruz and Jay Sean should be classed as pop music and leave R&B to the big boys.

He told The Daily Star: "There’s a very fine line between what’s R&B and pop these days. Just because it’s sung by a male minority doesn’t mean you’re urban or R&B. Those artists are pop. The true value of R&B has been brought down."

OMG, what a cheek!

r&bism

ushering in a new age

well, he's otm about taio cruz, that's for sure -- i guess "down" could be considered r&b, or at least i heard it on r&b stations -- all of that aside from the obv irony of his whole statement

i like what hes saying, but you cant really make that criticism if youre usher. or if youre trying to make R&B in the modern era. the lines are impossible to draw. down is def R&B though. cruz is just shit.

Usher the first (and only) celeb to give up on that ridiculous "dead twitter" AIDS charity drive: http://twitter.com/UsherRaymondIV

Here's his "last tweet and testament" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ27TmEjLzY

"It's truly a battle of AIDS vs. Raymond"

Usher's first tweet yesterday after announcing his death on the 30th: Twit fam, I'm whack for being late, I need your help. Twit,Happy Birthday Rico Love!!! He is the man that wrote you "There goes my baby"

Alicia Keys' latest tweet: @aliciakeys is dead but Bashir, father of 7 is ALIVE thanks to KCA. http://bit.ly/e8pa0VText ALICIA to 90999 & reply YES to give $10

Raymond v Raymond's "Pro Rated" snuck up on me tonight.

The new Usher & Diplo track really has some fun playing with/defying expectations for what an Usher & Diplo track might sound like. Huge improvement over Usher's recent hits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRJb_2bOjcg

loving his vocals on this one

this is dope

yeah I heard this last night. Not a fan of Usher or Diplo but this is pretty sick

Diplo is on a roll

beat really reminds me of something tho

sounds like something from the Araabmuzik album, maybe.

Loving it tho.

the beat is by diplo?! shocked

i love it - it's v "moments in love" right? reminds me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYEJvTI2qRY

amazing song, loving this more than i can say, really shocked that this is usher and/or diplo

"express yourself" (diplo & nicky da b) is pretty great, too, tho more what you'd expect of a diplo track

quoth a commenter on the soundcloud page:

no, it's not Usher, this actually has soul and its not overproduced/ overrated. This sounds more like The Weeknd

l∞l

http://i.imgur.com/Apddw.jpg

I really hate that "Scream" is going to be the crossover "Climax" wasn't.

yup

haha, usher's ex OTM

i don't know -- if i was a "climax" fan i'd be pretty happy that it did as well as it did. usher's entire career for the past few years has followed that forumla, big dancey pop smash with some r&b songs to stay current on urban radio. the only one to crossover iirc was "omg" and "climax" is a lot better than "there goes my baby" and stuff like that

i mean if someone had said "hey usher's new single is produced by diplo with contributions from nico muhly" i would've put it at 40% odds that it would've ended up as a "promo single" after two weeks

yeah "Climax" totally surpassed any reasonable expectations -- clearly occupied the same role in the album campaign as "Papers" but did better than that

Katherine St Asaph calling it "deliberate troll baiting" was otm.

although it should be said that labels can't completely control which song is the pop hit and which one is the buzz single -- "Look At Me Now" was supposed to be the urban radio flipside to proper lead single "Yeah 3X" but "Look" ended up being more of a crossover hit.

Hark.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb1nswEcy21qazvpdo1_500.jpg

Usher is apparently a judge on The Voice now. Is he any good? I imagine he'd be super charismatic, but it's funny; for as much I follow his music, I have no sense of what his off-stage persona is.

i haven't watched the show regularly since the first season, but i saw a few minutes of it last night and kinda liked seeing Usher and Shakira on there, they seemed to fit in well. Xtina was always the most boring of the mentors and Cee-Lo was always the most obnoxiously over the top.

Usher did really well. He's smooth.

I'm gonna have to try to catch it. Every time I catch a promo with him in it I'm wowed by how damn cool he is. Never seen more than a few minutes of the show so I don't really understand how it works, but the idea of being mentored by Usher is a really fun fantasy

imo its easily the best of vocal judged shows. The 'blind auditions' portion (the first half of the season) is really great. They don't waste time with crappy singers. The judges just have fun. It's not a labor for them and they don't take themselves too seriously.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/05/usher-4th-of-july-fireworks_n_3549899.html

Indeed, the show -- which was broadcast by NBC -- was legendary, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. Usher's 4th of July Fireworks playlist included Jimi Hendrix's take on "The Star-Spangled Banner," Kanye West, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, Frank Sinatra, and four songs performed by Usher: "Euphoria," "Yeah!," "OMG" and David Guetta's "Without You" (with vocals by Usher). Usher's focus on his own music didn't go unnoticed by many a Twitter user

lol what a stupid 'controversy.' giant music star asked to participate in cross-promotional event that trades heavily on his name recognition, and he has the gall to incorporate some of his gigantically popular hit songs into the program, jeez.

4 of his songs for this is a little much imho. Although I was more annoyed by the DC fireworks where I heard only vanilla-- Lumineers, U2, pop country and the 1812 Overture. No Ray Charles doing "America the Beautiful." A shame.

i dunno, it says there it was 4 songs in a row, but was it like entire songs or more of a medley thing?

i mean the whole thing was aggressively advertised as being curated by Usher, if you don't like Usher's music why would you watch or watch and expect not to hear some of his music

When I got home from the DC fireworks, I saw they were rebroadcasting the NYC fireworks on NBC. I turned it on to see the NYC fireworks, and had not seen any ads earlier for the Usher aspect. It appeared to be 4 complete Usher songs. This was not just some tv special, this was the 4th of July fireworks over the river with the NYC skyline in the background. I'm a sucker for a good fireworks show.

ehh that's NBC or Macy's problem if it was a bad call to invite Usher to be such a big part of it -- all this 'lol Usher you're so self-centered and unpatriotic' stuff is dumb, that's clearly what he was hired to do, lend his name and his music to the proceedings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ50gHyaD5c

cautiously optimistic as always

dude shot himself a zone commercial for whatever reason

http://www.complex.com/music/2014/06/usher-ft-juicy-j-i-dont-mind

love that

yeah i'm into it

[echos in ridiculous Migos voice] yeah youlovethat, yeah youintoTHAT? {into that!}

It took long enough but I now adore "Good Kisser."

yay "i don't mind" might be a single now even tho the album got delayed?? https://soundcloud.com/usher-raymond-music/usher-i-dont-mind-feat-juicy-j

this version is slightly but not very different

heard it on the radio and it sounded nice

really like that song. just nice and understated and kinda puts the songwriting up front.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJqUAepUYAAo3Bm.jpg

New song is really pretty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_qAAi-T0E

agreed

this one is much better than "no limit"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAdZMegajug

attn alfred, "third world man" sample

Been listening to a lot of usher lately. so much great stuff on Confessions and 8701

Loving Crash even tho it's so boilerplate.

ill p much love any song with that wobbly synth bass tho

attn alfred, "third world man" sample

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/batman/images/6/66/Bat_100.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111216084322

Usher's bit on De La's "Grehounds" is essential imo

true

This new album is really good

It's as uneven as the last one, whose good to excellent songs prompted me to grade it on a curve.

It's about two sensational highlights short of the last one, but I can forgive that. He's mellowed out and he's not reaching as hard as he did on the last few. This feels like his first album as a former Really Big Star, as opposed to an artist still trying to be a Really Big Star

this album is way better than Looking 4 Myself imo

as i've receded away from music criticism i think i've found that i have less use for an album like this -- which is a good album qua album w/ relatively few standouts -- than something like looking 4 myself, where half was pure trash but the 3 or 4 best songs were real standouts

It really depends on the situation. If I'm cooking dinner or something I'll reach for this, but if I'm in car and can easily skip tracks I'll go for Looking 4 Myself

L4M keepers:

Climax
title track
I Care For U
Dive
Numb
2nd Round

H2L keepers:

Bump
Let Me
Crash
FYM
Hard II Love

I agree with Evan: nothing on H2L will embarrass Usher's family like the last album's "Can't Stop Won't Stop" or "Scream."

L4M also had very good bonus tracks ("Say The Words" especially) that made its grab-bag feel a little more forgivable. It tempered the ratio of hits to misses and made the whole thing feel more generous

in "No Limit," does Usher sing:

Look my cat OD'd
No limit

time out--the best song on L4M is clearly "show me"

anyway, hard II love is technically a better album, which i guess matter when you have to assign ratings to such things. but functionally i'm not sure it has more utility to my life than the grab bag.

also "lemme see" is an underrated single, it's in one of those nguzunguzu mixes and sounds great

show me def the standout for me outside the obv climax

idk they're both grab bags to me; Usher's singing and writing and choosing songs like a former megastar instead of thinking he's still a megastar kept him from including another "Can't Stop...," although we can argue about Young Thug's appearance, I guess.

"Show Me" is good; forgot it.

also "what happened to u" was pretty tight and would fit on the new record... this album is better than i remembered

IFU beat is A+

"IFU" was the best song on that record imo

well, u know i what i think.

as i've receded away from music criticism i think i've found that i have less use for an album like this -- which is a good album qua album w/ relat
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 20 September 2016 22:14 Bookmark

It really depends on the situation. If I'm cooking dinner or something I'll reach for this, but if I'm in car and can easily skip tracks I'll go for Looking 4 Myself

― Evan R, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 22:21 Bookmark

lol i love this exchange. j0rd's provocatively salty framing checkmated by evan schooling on what true non-crit nothingness really be

xp rico love produced that, did you hear his album from last year?

putting that noble idea of album as microwave muzak aside for a sec and considering the holistic artistic statement then i still think that, at the time, l4m said something interesting for itself as a grab-bag. there were plenty of other grab-bags then, disjointed and nakedly cynical - imo l4m managed to carry a rare thread of touristic enthusiasm thru its peaks & valleys of tasteful & trash

that rico love lp was a such a uniquely weird faceless ventriloquist sesh.... rico act more like. serial rnb hit songwriter as cusack in being john malkovich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pClmzDdqkMQ

this one's like a seance. who am i speaking to i sense a great sadness

llol, yeeeeeeah thats one of like three trx i didnt like on there

man that vid is embarrassing

I've pissed off Morbs and xyzz in film threads for admitting that I've watched Hou films while mopping.

lol i love this exchange. j0rd's provocatively salty framing checkmated by evan schooling on what true non-crit nothingness really be

― r|t|c, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 5:07 PM (two hours ago)

Man you really have it out for me lately, huh? Did I somehow offend you or something? You jump down my throat every time I post

Rico Love album rules, even the fake N.E.R.D. song lol

Yeah, the Rico Love album was depressed loss-of-meaning r&b in the best sense. I can see why it did not sell though.

Man you really have it out for me lately, huh? Did I somehow offend you or something? You jump down my throat every time I post

― Evan R, Wednesday, 21 September 2016 02:12 Bookmark

man get a life. there is a discussion, you choose to contribute a point of view, i object to its flaccid suburban mediocrity, i pay you the courtesy of responding. that's how it works

is there an inviting, easygoing recent album you could maybe put on to unwind?

what is "the best sense" of er, "depressed loss-of-meaning r&b"? i mean i got a lil nostalgic kick out of the n.e.r.d zombie too for a sec but to go so far as to say it rules just seems like being pugnacious about closing your playbook sometime around 2006

some of the album is nicely produced, some taxidermy is nicely enbalmed

It's utterly disillusioned in a way that most quasi-nihilistic hedonist r&b doesn't even try to be. Hence more interesting.

It's not the young & trendy numbness of abel & co, but a beaten down, at-the-end-of-the-rope-so-I-might-as-well-laugh disenchantment. It felt refreshing to me, at least. I haven't listened to it in a while though.

http://i.imgur.com/NRb4TVn.jpg

i don't really recall discerning a strong consistent persona like that at all thru the karaoke smoke but maybe i'll listen again sometime

wait why did this "girls just wanna have fun" song not end up on the album

new album out at midnight, produced entirely by zaytoven

Usher's dropping a new album at midnight, produced entirely by Zaytoven. pic.twitter.com/OrsAV8h6ec

— Meelz 💪🏾 (@MeelzTV) October 11, 2018

sounds like he's trying to be future :-/

This is going to be bad I’m sure

Zaytoven is a hilarious name

pretty forgettable on my initial couple listens

His new single with Ella Mai is fantastic

https://youtu.be/MMitI4VbSuo

actually pretty hyped that he's doing the Super Bowl halftime next year

I wondered why people I knew suddenly wanted to discuss how awesome they found Confessions in 2004.

i can never not hear it luda style as ursher and well reality is confounding in a lot of ways. like why the fuck is urshur at the big game TM?

*i think i said this before better scan*

And now I'll always have a little voice say "Ursher" in my head. That Yeah song. Urg.
― Hunter (Hunter), Sunday, February 22, 2004 8:58 PM (nineteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg i am dying right now second time today it is sad rip me

listening to his peak era albums in advance of this weekend. my way is very refreshing as a cd-era r&b album that comes in at a cool 9 songs, 36 minutes. all the songs are pretty good, too.

new album is okay. still excited for his performance

Confessions is that uncommon thing: the biggest album is the best album. I dig My Way too.

yes confessions is great, pretty much all the way through.

"Kissing Strangers" off the new album is him at his midtempo best

The back half of new album >>> front half

Rollerskating while singing live on that stage was crazy ballsy.

supposedly something he's been doing at his vegas residency, so at least he's had practice