Let's Anticipate Usher's "Looking 4 Myself"

http://www.xlurbanmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/usher-looking-for-myself-400x300.jpg

"Twisted," "Climax," and "I Care For U" are career highs.

seems kind of odd to use the "let's anticipate" format for an album that is leaked and days from release

thought the same thing. here's hoping "less anticipate" doesn't become as standard here as for ile movie threads.

alf did you not see us already discussing this in some depth on the r&b thread or did you just want the first word for yourself

ha i was wondering whether i hallucinated that discussion because it isn't here!

i actually really like the two dancetrash bookends, "scream" and "numb" can do one though, and enuff of the cloudsynths on "what happened to u". i think i basically like every other song though.

i find it rather amusing that the neptunes are now used for retro-sounding period pieces like "twisted".

"i care for u" tries very hard to impress, and i guess i am impressed but i'm waiting for it to settle into actual affection.

"sins of my father" and "ifu" are my favs atm (apart from "climax"). title track sounds like it could be a sleeper fave. fuck it i really love "euphoria" actually. "hot thing" is awesome. still think it's sequenced horribly and in such a way that it's hard to get a handle on any of the songs - "climax" is really illustrative of this, it sounds SO out of place between "scream" and "i care for u". and why are "sins of the father" and "euphoria" next to each other???

i feel like these artists are FORCING me to use the itunes playlist function way more than i want to. like ok i'll take "euphoria" out of here and put it next to "pound the alarm" and the new bieb ok ok ok

guys, I thought the discussion deserved its own thread; it's not a big deal. I didn't it buried as part of a large thread like most Erykah Badu discussion is.

*I didn't want it

"2nd round" is immaculate. love that beat so much

ugh I hope "Euphoria" doesn't become a single.

this will doubtless mean bugger all to anyone interested in this thread but track 1 "featuring will i am & keith harris" never fails to amuse

http://images.teamtalk.com/08/07/800x600/Keith-Harris-Orville_1073901.jpg

i realised after saying my piece on the r&b thread yday that i'd kinda made the elementary error of not properly mentally demarcating where the album stopped and where the bonus tracks began; the album is actually far better balanced than i gave it credit for (regardless of how much i like those bonuses)

also thanks to sarge i have now SEEN THE LIGHT re 'show me', it
really is exceedingly dope

The only bonus track I'd have loved in the original sequence is "I.F.U.," preferably instead of "Sins of My Fathers."

I would love the title track if not for the echo on his vocal.

btw just read ur graun review lex; i don't really agree with it (not that i can blame you on a tight turnaround) but what i really want to ask is how can you persist for writing for such scumbags in the comment boxes for so long? i genuinely doubt any publication has a more despicable readership, even the daily mail would have more to offer no joke

sorry to briefly derail but had to be said

GeorgeWashingtonDuke
8 June 2012 4:30PM
Response to deku13, 8 June 2012 4:13PM
Considering you don't know what RnB is how do you know its garbage. Can't help and think you just don't like black culture.

deku13
8 June 2012 5:11PM
Response to GeorgeWashingtonDuke, 8 June 2012 4:30PM
What so now I'm a xenophobe or something?

haha i forgot it was coming out y'day! i haven't read the comments. they can't be worse than the ones for my cher lloyd/pitbull interviews.

i definitely did not have enough time with the album, which is almost as much because of how long and bloated it is as label fuckery, i don't think it's easy to pin down in a capsule review though.

not to give too much credence to ursh's "revolutionary pop" flannel but i dunno if i can think of a better blended major modern pop album these last few years - like i doubt it'll be part of any new vanguard or anything but this definitely feels like it's finally turned the frankenstein corner into mutual co-existence, not massively but enough for a hopeful glimpse

xp yeah it's far from the first time i've thought that re the graun

re the will.i.am track: "Let me be your body soap"?

i feel like these artists are FORCING me to use the itunes playlist function way more than i want to. like ok i'll take "euphoria" out of here and put it next to "pound the alarm" and the new bieb ok ok ok

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Saturday, June 9, 2012 6:38 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hip hop and contemporary R&B albums have been way too long since the mid-1990s at least, when folks seemed to discover (thanks to public enemy maybe?) that you can and might as well use up the full capacity of a CD.

i wonder whether the rise of digital downloading has only encouraged this trend, insofar as there's probably less expectation that folks will listen to albums as albums, in full and in sequence, and they can instead just pick and choose from the 13, 15, 17, etc. tracks.

i admit i long for the days when you could stick 7 or 8 longish R&B jams together and call it an album.

yeah.

at the same time, i'm kind of waiting for someone to take advantage of the mp3 album format. the chromatics album is 90 minutes, and i dig that, and terre thaemlitz has his 32 or whatever hour album coming up, which... i doubt i'll dig so much, but it seems like something that's been somewhat untapped.

i should have said early 1990s. weren't those de la soul CDs like 70+ minutes?

(admittedly those were good.)

i like 'say the words'

need 'show me' to be at least 3 times as long

just pressed play on this and instantly lolled at "Uptown Girl (Rave Remix)"

oh god i feel bad that i never noticed that until now :o

is it just me or is usher in permanent oversinging mode these days? kind of like he started trying to match the relentless fake euphoria of poptrance beats a few years ago and can't come back down

Keepers:

Climax
Looking 4 Myself
Show Me
I Care For U
Sins of My Father
I.F.U. (bonus)

Okay:

Dive
Lessons for the Lover
What Happened To You
Lemme See (dislike Usher's hook)
Twisted
Numb

Crap:

Scream
Can't Stop Won't Stop
Euphoria

is it just me or is usher in permanent oversinging mode these days? kind of like he started trying to match the relentless fake euphoria of poptrance beats a few years ago and can't come back down

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 9:42 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, otm. it's like he's trying to keep up with trey songz or something.

I don't quite agree except for the ridiculous, terrible acting in the "Climax" video.

LOVE

climax
lemme see
sins of my father
euphoria
ifu
say the words
2nd round
hot thing

LIKE, POSSIBLY TO BE UPGRADED

i care for u
show me
dive
looking 4 myself

LIKE, PROBABLY WON'T BE UPGRADED

twisted
lessons for the lover

WHATEVIA

what happened to u
numb

FUCK OFF

can't stop won't stop
scream

this album should be called 'looking 4 the right edgy tattoo/haircut/producer to make my old ass seem relevant'

jesus christ "Can't Stop Won't Stop" is the worst fucking thing, holy shit

who in their right mind puts this on the album, let alone makes it the lead track

this album is pretty good, but it's getting overrated real fucking quickly right now

Looking 4 The Kind Of Critical Attention Beyonce Got With 4

altho tbf i'm not sure i could even name the last halfway decent pop album off the top of my head

4?

lol

the bieber album is gonna kick this one's ass, we'll see what the reaction is tho

this album is pretty good, but it's getting overrated real fucking quickly right now

OTM. And the "he put out a dance-leaning pop album that isn't terrible" narrative is really sad. That's the standard now?

okay yeah "Climax" is great

I think I would have hated "Scream" had I not heard "Can't Stop Won't Stop" right before it

the gulf between Usher's vocal talent and Bieber's is so wide that i'm not sure if the latter's best could top the former's worst (which this is not)

And the "he put out a dance-leaning pop album that isn't terrible" narrative is really sad.

this is the narrative, really? half the album isn't dance-pop though.

i haven't listened to the whole bieber album yet but from the bits i've dipped into it seems much on a par with this.

is it just me or is usher in permanent oversinging mode these days?

what is meant by "oversinging" here, because Usher is an artist who spends so much time in his falsetto that it's impossible for him to be a 100% all the time shoutmonster

"I Care For U" is astonishingly good, like I'm kind of taken aback by how much I like it

i really like his use of falsetto here - when he's not in it he seems to strain really hard for the same kind of forced euphoria that's the default on the big dance-pop monster numbers - "say the words" really shows this up, cuz he suddenly goes completely restrained on it

this album is pretty good, but it's getting overrated real fucking quickly right now

Felt exactly that way about Bieber's "Boyfriend."

I don't get the complaint he's oversinging and if so only in bits ("What Happened to You"). If anything he's subtler now that he's not relying on club bangers.

o_O wtf is happening, it's 2012 and I'm really enjoying an Usher album

about halfway through "Show Me" and he hasn't started shouting yet (I expect him to by the end); this whole performance is an excellent example of how you can use mannered to convey emotion

i really like his use of falsetto here - when he's not in it he seems to strain really hard for the same kind of forced euphoria that's the default on the big dance-pop monster numbers - "say the words" really shows this up, cuz he suddenly goes completely restrained on it

I don't really hear any more abuse of that in what he's doing now and what he's done in the past; have you listened to "Caught Up" or "Yeah" recently?

who's overrating this btw? has it been called a masterpiece in some quarters?

how about just an album without goofy garbage like "Twisted" and "Looking 4 Myself" and "Can't Stop Won't Stop" on it

I meant that choosing just those three tracks as exceptions to general disappointment seemed to allow for a very narrow aesthetic/emotional range.

I agree your hypothetical version would be much better sd.

I don't think I actively dislike any song on here, maybe "Euphoria" I dunno, but I just don't find it all that compelling.

i don't think i can actually make a track listing that "fixes" this album for me in the way could with nicki (which doesn't actually feel AT ALL disappointing or unsatisfying despite its own mess), a lot of the songs themselves are impressive but not quite compelling me to listen and listen on loop. i think usher's massive serious-artiste face all over the album is kind of off-putting, he tries to invest a lot of these songs with a profundity they don't have ("i care for u" and "looking 4 myself" are particular offenders here even though they're both ok songs). even "show me" slides off the brain a bit.

basically i enjoy usher's idea of disposable (the bonus tracks) way more than his idea of artistry

"what happened to u" is so boring, just go away squinting through weeknd smoke, really, fuck the fuck off now

that's a great song! i don't see what it has to do w/ the weeknd at all, aside from that it was produced by 40. but if you think the weeknd sounds like that, you should go back and listen to the weeknd again.

his singing on "what happened to u" is maybe the closest this album gets to 'confessions,' it's great. tagging it as a weeknd song is really not seeing the forest for the threes imo.

but if you think the weeknd sounds like that, you should go back and listen to the weeknd again.

no thanks

yeah sarge otm, even coming from the little prince of inane false binary hype that is just paranoid schizo nonsense

the one thing that really irritates me about that tune - and i know this is probably too inside baseball to qualify as any less rabid - is that first five seconds of the 'one more chance' remix sample just cos it reminds me of 40 saying in his fader interview about how his work is inspired by dj clark kent and 90s r&b/rap collabos which is hands down one of the most offensively deluded statements i have ever read

the sample reveal is itself unnecessary anyway of course, it's just such a smug little gesture

i love "dive"

i think that's where the album 'starts' for me instead of "Climax," up to fucking track 8 i'm pretty listless, practically covering my eyes in horror by the time Pharrell shows up, and then the clouds finally part and it's relatively smooth sailing from then on.

The "groove" on the title track is strong enough for me to ignore that it's underwritten (e.g. the "introspection" isn't well parsed on a song with already four writers).

the title track just makes me think of that goofy-ass video of him covering "Pumped Up Kicks"

Usher's music has never contained any "introspection" that didn't belong in scare quotes, for better or worse he's a showbiz kid

they don't give a fuck about anyone else

can we return to discussing how good "What Happened to U" is

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 5:25 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

"Numb" is apparently the latest single, thus effectively guaranteeing that "Show Me" prob won't become one. Kind of a shame.

i dunno usher albums have a fuckload of singles

the little prince of inane false binary hype

daaaamn missed this

"show me" is one of my favs but it never really struck me as a potential single

most underrated on this album = "2nd round"

that bed of cut-up vocals is so feathery and then the way it explodes into the chorus

Yeah love "2nd Round". This album is great, fuck the haters.

haha i've actually forgotten what half the songs sound like, the try-hard all-over-the-place stuff killed it as a body of work for me

the bonus trax are the best non-climaxes by some distance

I listened to Confessions way more in 2012 than Looking 4 Myself ¯\(°_o)/¯

Tim was right to mention "Show Me" in his year-end list.

Though it's not really representative, I feel like more than any track "Show Me" is a bellwether for the rest of the album. You're either charmed by it or embarrassed for it

I think Lex is otm about the bonus tracks, too. They were assured in a way most of the album didn't seem to be

"show me" was what made me go back to the album because it was in tim's list and i literally could not remember it. it's an odd one to single out but it's ok enough, i'm neither charmed nor embarrassed. i'm probably not going to listen to it again.

"show me" had long been the best track. i'd apply evan's theory to the horrible pharrell sock-hop joint.

I still stan for this, although, yeah, he's made two better albums. "Show Me," "2nd Round," the title track, and "What Happened to U" my faves.

i'd apply evan's theory to the horrible pharrell sock-hop joint.

I just assumed that even fans who rode hard for this album thought this track was trash

ppl these days seem to refuse to believe that pharrell is still kinda trash

tbf his Kendrick Lamar collab gave him a new lease.

that's the worst beat on the album

the beat on the kendrick album is like pharrell copying tyler the creator copying pharrell

otm. pharrell grandfathering his way into a run of appearances on significant albums this year was a total fluke.

think "Real" is the least interesting beat but you know

otm. pharrell grandfathering his way into a run of appearances on significant albums this year was a total fluke.

― some dude, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:19 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

when you consider his placements on albums by frank ocean & kendrick lamar that are mostly pretty tightly run ships, it leads me to believe that pharrell is getting placements from these dudes off of neptunes nostalgia. they're both right around that age where they would've been pretty formative. but it's not like those productions are clear standouts.

Weird year for Pharrell. He hit some of the highest highs of his late career with those Ocean and Lamar albums, but a lot of his other shit was even worse than usual this year. That Curren$y song, yikes

i was definitely too rough on the Usher album back when it dropped and it seemed like him getting any critical attention at all for an album was just belated and ill-placed. but now that he's been basically ignored in most of the big 'year in R&B' pieces aside from "Climax" in favor of some (mostly) better albums i'm like oh wait this was an alright record, probably could've fit it into my albums list.

I spent a lot of time with Confessions and Here I Stand this break, next to which L4M sounds particularly fraught if not schizophrenic; but it still placed in my top twenty. If any interested writer still needs a year-end idea for What's Happening in R&B, then L4M is a good example of a fiscal cliff-esque compromise between the crassest of commercial aspirations and an instinct, however muddled, to look beyond the usual influences.

and lol "Twisted" is NOT a career highlight. Sorry, thread.

yeah L4M is definitely more 'the whole year of the genre in a nutshell' than any other record, for better and for worse

it's all about 8701 imo

i was surprised there weren't more records that did the whole bloated every-trend-in-one-album thing that nicki and usher did this year, it looked like it was going to be a thing there for a minute

pharrell made one of the best beats on kendrick's album and one of the worst on usher's

THIS ALBUM IS SO GOOD WHY AM I JUST REALISING THIS

it actually is a really good album. for me there are about 2 or 3 tracks i would rather do without but the rest are quite strong.

otm. I returned to it a couple weeks ago a bit nervous but still stand by my original assessment.