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

i'm confused as to why he does so in the first place

really liking this album. climax is still my favorite thing on it but i'm actually pretty pleased with most of it. the only song that really kinda disgusted me was "can't stop won't stop" (which had me scared for the rest of the album since it was the first track). really liking the danja and jim jonsin tracks in particular.

also prob an unpopular opinion but i don't mind "scream" at all, usher singing max martin isn't great but it doesn't get on my nerves either.

what i'm saying (xpost)

I'd love Usher singing a decent Max Martin song.

Where does that main synth theme come from in "Can't Stop Won't Stop"? It's from another song or film score or something I've heard before.

Oh wait...

It's like some doo wop song...

Oh, I'm fully aware of why Looking 4 Myself sounds the way it does. I guess I was expecting it to be not so explicitly that sound. But it seems like they asked him to specifically reproduce it for Usher. I'm guessing the lyrics are written by Luke Steele, as well. Phrases like "way better" strike me as really Aussie.

Shit. Is it Uptown Girl? xp

I'm gonna throw down the gauntlet and say that Here I Stand might've actually been better than this album.

Phrases like "way better" strike me as really Aussie.

"Way better" is something I hear all the time in the US.

I knew I picked up on that. Probably just me projecting then :)

It's "Uptown Girl," yeah.

i was glad i didn't read maura's article before listening to the album so i could experience the smh surprise in real time

anybody get a Raphael Saadiq vibe from "Twisted"?

no, it just sounds like the same flimsy lounge-funk that pharrell has been doing for half a decade now

Saadiq at his least interesting records flimsy lounge funk

oh, well then yes!

I'm gonna throw down the gauntlet and say that Here I Stand might've actually been better than this album.

I haven't heard this yet and therefore cannot throw any gauntlets but I'm glad to see someone else stand up for Here I Stand if that's what you're doing

here i stand up for Here I Stand

my favorite Here I Stand-era joint wasn't even on the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrgZlZC-Q3A

still havent listened to this because in my limited free time i just keep putting "IFU" on repeat. thanks a lot, rtc

yeah great song, rtc. didn't even realize you were working with usher.

k3vin's signed up to mix the next one

lol

rtc first big-upped the song here iircn which is what i was referring to

am i the only one who really loves "lesson for the lover"? it's got that slow, dirty, propulsive thrust i love about terry's best ballads

Love "Show Me" so much, it joins select Dawn Richard in suggesting R&B can and may sometimes choose actually to do fun and interesting things with the house template. Every little component dovetails so perfectly.

Also fuck yeah "Euphoria" in fact.

I basically like-to-love everything except the first two songs.

"show me" is great... i love how the vocals kinda float on top of the percussion

danja's two productions on the album are brilliant, it's great to hear him but it makes me wish he was doing more work

xp eh idk, as an album opener intro (and nothing else, i must stress) 'cant stop' is so toweringly, dizzyingly silly in every way it's hard to resent really

i mean you can't even accuse it of sell-out functionalism, like the big stupid drop it demands is conspicuously absent!! all uptown build and then apologetically halting circular excuse for a chorus

nah it's pretty easy to resist -- my method is to just start the album with "climax"

"can't stop" is a mess but my i dislike "scream" more because the "oh oh"-ing in the chorus is so non-functional, it seems so obvious that instead of deciding to write words for the chorus they were just like "well, if we do a bunch of random oh-oh-ing halfway thru no one will be able to tell the difference"

nah it's pretty easy to resist -- my method is to just start the album with "climax"

― J0rdan S., Monday, June 18, 2012 10:31 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't do this kind of thing because if an album has huge flaws i need to keep confronting so as not to forget they exist -- i would've fucked up and thought Lloyd made the best album of last year if i'd just started it at track 3 everytime

tho if you measure "scream" against "omg" & "dj got us fallin in love" it's kind of a dud, so maybe we all weren't as hook/line/sinker as they thought we'd be

At a pool party yesterday we heard "Scream" and the Guetta collab back to back. I was like, drown me now please.

first time i heard "can't stop" i thought pretty much the same as rtc re: silliness but that was only due to novelty, it's sounded gross every time since

i think i way prefer the bonus tracks to the album proper, it seems to finally relax at that point - they don't seem to have a taste-chess agenda in the same way

still think this album is less than the sum of its parts, if anyone could expand on HOW they think any of this mess is coherent or tied together do feel free to say

One can still love a mess.

yeah track skipping is just not cricket, we've been over this a million times tho

It's got four songs I never want to hear again but I've got enough affection for the rest that I don't think, say, a B+ is overrating it.

danja's two productions on the album are brilliant, it's great to hear him but it makes me wish he was doing more work

― lamborghini persie (J0rdan S.), Monday, 18 June 2012 15:18 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

danja is not quite yet at the darkchild chronic stage of genius extraordinaire/lazy fucker syndrome but he's certainly the nearest latterday parallel i think

ok maybe lazy fucker is harsh but unrealised potential dominion at least

still think this album is less than the sum of its parts

i agree w/ this. most of the non-dance shit is great individually (well, except "twisted") but yeah idk it's not a great album, for whatever that's worth

i think maybe timbo taught danja how to price himself out of the game

i think i way prefer the bonus tracks to the album proper, it seems to finally relax at that point - they don't seem to have a taste-chess agenda in the same way

― star-spangled david banner (lex pretend), Monday, June 18, 2012 10:38 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

what was the last pop album that wouldn't be greatly improved if you switched out the x number of worse tracks for the bonus tracks? i was thinking '21' & 'born this way' but those also don't even have bonus tracks.

first time i heard "can't stop" i thought pretty much the same as rtc re: silliness but that was only due to novelty, it's sounded gross every time since

― star-spangled david banner (lex pretend), Monday, 18 June 2012 15:38 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

exact opposite for me, my cold heart melts a little each time quite frankly

i suppose i am a noted aficionado and apologist of will i am trolling by this point though

born this way had bonus tracks but in a surprise twist they actually were completely inessential

will.i.am's keenness to position himself as a member of the royal family has paid off in that i actually despise him as much as them now

the whole "fergie" thing just still confuses him

haha @ u both

i suppose i am a noted aficionado and apologist of will i am trolling by this point though

will you are