Usher - Classic or Dud?

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BO-RINNNG! Li'l Jon cannot save you, Usher

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

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 2 April 2004 19:28 (9 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

The man has three singles in the Top 30 right now, two in the Top 3.

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.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 2 May 2004 18:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

and I want LOTS more discussion of "Burn."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 2 May 2004 18:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

also Cibula's review of Confessions is really awesome.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 2 May 2004 18:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

Confessions is definitely on track to outsell Justified, but that hasn't happened yet, and a lot of Justified's press/praise was accumulated over the course of a year, Usher record just came out, so time will tell on that one.

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.

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

Usher...not gonna say much more than "bleh". He's had a few songs which I've considered guilty pleasures of mine, I admit ("U Remind Me" remix, "My Way"), but most of his clunky, midi-sounding r&b tunes are just flat. Not to mention that he's not a very good singer, although that's not necessarily a prerequisite if you have enough character.

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.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

fine, dad.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

stop calling grandpa "dad," strongo

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yea, keep telling yourself that's it. :)

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

":)"

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Usher's next album will be composed entirely on Midisoft Studio for Windows

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

His voice has developed a LOT, and although its not evident on a track as sonically abrasive (in a good way) as "Yeah", on a minimalist track like "Burn" its especially obvious - dude can sing like a motherfucker.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

Usher's next album will be composed entirely on Midisoft Studio for Windows

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

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

Dude cannot sing.

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

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm not really familiar with his older stuff, but his voice is excellent on "Burn."

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

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm a singer, and have been studying voice for well over a decade, and at one point, was majoring in it in college.

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.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

did I REALLY just say "necessarily necessary"? My god, I can hardly believe I'm not still drunk.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:48 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm surprised that so many people are bigging up the album so much - I count the following tracks as being worthy: "Yeah", "Throwback", "Confessions", "Burn" and that treacly Jermaine Dupri track towards the end. And that's it. Even the Richcraft track is unremarkable.

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

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

I wouldn't say Al Green was *technically* a great singer

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yep, keep going, instead of explaining your position, continue with the ad hominems, they make you seem real intelligent.

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?

― Uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

I haven't gotten the album yet (I'm waiting till I hear "Confessions" on the radio so that it passes my three-singles-I-love-then-I-by-you rule) but even if only five tracks are credible that's at LEAST two more than Justified had.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

I take Justin Timberlake as serious as I take making race cars out of diarrhea.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 00:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

JT = Usher + Corey Feldman

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

How many times have we linked to this?

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!

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm interested as to why you feel you should link to an article rather than make your own points.

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, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

No I do like it a lot but I'd been hoping that it did for either "Pump It Up" or "Song Cry" what "Yeah" did for "Get Low" and instead find that it's ear-tickling but very restrained.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

and before someone mentions the whole "originality isn't a requirement" argument (one that I actually agree with), realize that's by far not the only problem I have with his retarded music.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

Tim, what do you think of "Caught Up"? I thought that track was terrific!

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

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

It was written by someone who posts here occasionally.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

I actually think Timberlake sounded great on Celebrity but on Justified he got WAY overconfident, the music is so non-mall that it needs a singer who's equally supple. Timbo just sounds like he's going to do the Urkel (though all the singles are enjoyable). He sounded a lot more soulful when he surrounded himself with guys like Lance Bass and Max Martin.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

Afraid to read the article? Dee, I'm not sure what your issue is, but you seem to be unable to comprehend the fact that people don't like your favorite musical artists, instead choosing to believe that said people have some mental deficiency they were unaware of.

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.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

Timberlake's pipes are just shitty as hell. I work with people daily that could blow him off of the fucking planet.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:15 (9 years ago) Permalink

He gets blown plenty.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm sure he does, however, that doesn't change the fact that he still sucks.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

the average Timberlake fan:

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

alright new topic. What's everybody's favorite part of "Burn"? The spoken intro? The climax? The mood shift? The word "fifty-leven"? the hoo-hoo-hoo's?

These days its boo-oooo for me.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like the breakdown in the middle. The cool descending synth-efx that sound like sweat dripping are really nice too. "fifty-leven" takes third place.

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

"SO MANY DAYS, SO MANY HOURS"!

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Or I guess it's "how". Either way, it's awesome.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like "Burn" and all, but I mean, without the completely spastic meter of the verses, it'd be a pretty unremarkable ballad. I guess that's kind of the point, though.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

And did anyone else see Usher and Luda on SNL last night? Usher was fucking incredible.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love that they did the bit with the different dances that Lil Jon does at the end of the video, that's by far my favorite part of the video.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

THUNDACLAP!

― djdee2005, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's a shame he didn't make a whole album of "Burn"/"Confessions" style tracks. This R Kelly/Joni Mitchell fusion thing he's got going is great!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 May 2004 02:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

Rockaway, Rockaway, Rockaway, Rockaway aaaaand cut.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 3 May 2004 02:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

I was talking to a friend about "Burn" today and he point out that it's reminiscent of Bone Thugs' "Crossroads", which is definitely a good point of comparison in certain parts of the song.

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.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 3 May 2004 05:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

''Al Green was a great performer and a great R&B artist, but in terms of TECHNIQUE, he was nothing amazing''

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.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 3 May 2004 11:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

Usher getting busted staring at under-age boobies on national TV: Classic

― boldbury (boldbury), Monday, 3 May 2004 13:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

I have always unabashedly and brazenly loved. Even when I was still a ridiculously indie-only fuxor.

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.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 3 May 2004 13:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 132 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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

― fapper don (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 01:07 (11 months ago) Permalink

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

― waggin the cock and flow tit (some dude), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 01:14 (11 months ago) Permalink

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

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 01:24 (11 months ago) Permalink

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.

― waggin the cock and flow tit (some dude), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 01:30 (11 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

Hark.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 28 September 2012 18:34 (7 months ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

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.

― Evan R, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:14 (1 month ago) Permalink

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.

― some dude, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:31 (1 month ago) Permalink

Usher did really well. He's smooth.

― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:34 (1 month ago) Permalink

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

― Evan R, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:43 (1 month ago) Permalink

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.

― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 15:49 (1 month ago) Permalink

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