![]() ![]() It's not just that the music has changed: the new paradigm for a successful musician demands constant interaction with fans and artfully choreographed press campaigns to produce saturation coverage around record releases and tours. These are tough times for soul singers who aspire to a place in the music's rich history (Usher's status among the greats is already assured: the late James Brown once called him "the Godson of Soul"). There's been birth and death, severed relationships, both personal and professional, and worries over a career that hasn't returned to the stratospheric heights his globe-conquering, 20m-selling Confessions album reached in 2004. He turns down more offers to appear in Hollywood movies than he accepts, he enjoyed good notices for a three-month stint on Broadway as Billy Flynn in Chicago, and even his male and female perfume ranges have been bestsellers.īut the last few years have been difficult for the man hailed as the best dancer in pop since Michael Jackson, and credited with inventing Justin Timberlake (the former 'N Sync star's debut album was built from Usher's blueprint). The basketball team he co-owns, the Cleveland Cavaliers, have just won their league. The first signee to his record label, Justin Bieber, is an international overnight star thanks to YouTube. You'd expect the multimillionaire R&B star who, according to the US music industry trade paper Billboard, stands second only to Eminem as the most successful artist of the 2000s, to have one or two things to smile about as he prepares to release his sixth album. "Energetically, my soul, my mind, my focus – I'm happy, I'm relaxed, and I'm ready to do it all over again." "I'm happy to be in this space and this place," he smiles, draped over a soft leather sofa in a recording studio in the basement of a Hollywood hotel – though he's speaking metaphorically, not literally. “Mars vs Venus,” a very slow jam, soars, while “Pro Lover” is a breezy, casual number filled with sweet dub accents.Usher Raymond IV is in a thoroughly good mood. Two of the best happen to be collaborations with Jam and Lewis and the Avila Brothers. (The combination is as wrong as Eugene McDaniels' “Compared to What” and a soft drink commercial.) Otherwise, the slow jams and the few moments when Usher sounds as if he's having actual fun win out. (Either way, it’s evident that long-term relationships might not be for him.) The sleek dancefloor track “So Many Girls,” one of a few songs in which Usher sounds dead in the eyes, going through the motions, desensitized by the bounty of women at his feet, is followed by the sarcastically titled “Guilty,” where he whines “I guess I’m guilty for wanting to be up in the club” - which warrants a response like “Yes, attached 31-year-old man, that’s correct.” A few songs before that is a quasi-redemptive ballad “Foolin’ Around” he humbles himself, seems to take responsibility for his actions, then casually drops “Guess that’s just the man in me, blame it on celebrity.” The album’s catchiest uptempo song, “Lil Freak,” featuring Nicki Minaj, is effective despite itself, swiping the synthesizer line from “Living for the City” - a classic containing Stevie Wonder's most angered social commentary - for the sake of Usher’s lesbian tryst. ![]() ![]() Many of the songs on the album have to be taken on their own, stripped of context otherwise, determining what applies to Usher’s real and fantasy lives can be problematic. He pours himself into that song more than any other on the set, and breakup lyrics don’t get much more specific than “You don’t think I know what’s up, but sweetheart that’s what ruined us” or “I done damn near lost my mama.” The song was awarded the top spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, most likely for its lyrical uniqueness since the song does not break out of an exceptionally repetitive twiddle. ![]() “Papers,” the early buzz single for Raymond V Raymond, bears the closest relation to the turbulence he experienced. The making of Usher’s sixth studio album was inevitably affected by the end of his marriage and its aftershocks. ![]()
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