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

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?

oh I really thought I was going to like "Lemme See" but that pre-chorus is fucking stupid

god I hate "Yeah," mostly for how he forces him to harmonize with that awful synth squawk.

what is Rick Ross's appeal btw

he's big meech

the "lemme SEE lemme SEE" bit is so irritating

I'm so annoyed by his dumb-ass Drake impersonation in the pre-chorus that the chorus comes across as a relief

okay "Twisted" is fucking great, wau

i like "lemme see" but rick ross's trayvon martin reference nearly wrecks it in a single line

what is Rick Ross's appeal btw

as far as i can tell it's because he's popular and ergo important

idg what this backlash is all about, the "he put out a dance-leaning pop album that isn't terrible" narrative is p fun and worthwhile compared to "washed up r&b classicist puts out a by-the-numbers brick for the moms" ad nauseum

"Dive" is also fantastic

it's nice after years of enduring "Let's Make Love In This Club"-style bullshit to be reminded that Usher is actually capable of singing a song

o_O "What Happened To U"!

If you'd told me several years ago that in 2012 I would be totally loving new Usher ballads, I would have hurt myself laughing at you

I don't know why the Drake imitation on the pre-chorus of this song doesn't irritate me, although I'm guessing it's because it's undercut by the falsetto riffing floating over it

http://soundcloud.com/matchstick-1/usher-scream-exemen-remix

good little wookie mix of 'scream' for filing under more rehabilitative ukg magic btw

... why does "Looking 4 Myself" sound like a discarded Pink song

i was wavering on "looking 4 myself" until i saw someone compare it to phoenix, at which point i was just like "yes, i'll take it!"

i like "lemme see" but rick ross's trayvon martin reference nearly wrecks it in a single line

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 3:39 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's obviously a weird fit, but hey, he threatens to kill george zimmerman, so i'm okay with it

kind of got distracted but the back half of the album was pleasant, not overly arresting

I am still kind of shocked that I just enjoyed a post-2004 Usher album

btw "lemme see" is one of the best usher singles in a long while

did you listen to the version w/the bonus tracks dan?

"Lemme See" is terrible, much prefer the other new Ross/Usher single

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

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 3:34 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark

masterpiece, but generally very positive reviews in the voice, SPIN, gawker etc

idk, i guess i understand why people feel good about it, just seems like they hype accelerated very quickly for an album that is very imperfect

that said, rtc's rebuttal has plenty of merit

btw "lemme see" is one of the best usher singles in a long while

that doesn't automatically carry it into the realm of "good song", Usher has been releasing tons and tons of bullshit for almost 8 years

did you listen to the version w/the bonus tracks dan?

Yeah, it seems like Spotify only has the deluxe version

i can't even picture any scenario in which there aren't at least three Raymond Vs. Raymond era singles that aren't better than "Lemme See"

the one thing that's really sticking w/ me here is usher's arbitrary substitution of numbers for letters and letters for words

the album is called 'looking 4 myself', but we also get an "i care for u" and a "what happened to u" and "i.f.u."

i like to think that he didn't go with "i care 4 u" out of respect for aaliyah but i can't figure out his reasoning at all

the one thing that's really sticking w/ me here is usher's arbitrary substitution of numbers for letters and letters for words

See, that's the brilliance of the album. It only seems arbitrary, but it's very deliberate, because this is a record about trying on new hats, searching for the one that fits best. Usher sweats the details.

http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/usher.jpghttp://adobemaster.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/usher-kufi-hat.jpghttp://blog.amalgamationmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/usher_hat.jpg

but Prince and Sinead already own those hats.

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.