USHER: the singles

JT still can't sing as pretty imo

10 years ago, if you'd told me that I would be a Justin Timberlake supporter and think Usher was phoning it in big time with super-hacky gimmick songs, I would have laughed in your face

;_;

The thing is, everyone is all over JT's falsetto and upper register, but that's not at all where he sounds best aside from a couple of perfect-storm performances ('NSync's "Gone" being the biggest example).

oh well maybe "U Got It Bad" will get a vote this time around

― Monkeys? Um, no. (HI DERE), Friday, September 24, 2010 10:56 AM Bookmark

already made sure of this tbh

He sounds terrible on "Gone"! WTF

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allthatisrealislove
2 months ago 34

I love African American musicians. Beautiful voices, dancing, clothes, lyrics and so talented. They have given me endless hours happiness listening to their music. Thank you so much!

o_O

Relistening to "Gone" now and it's not nearly as nasal as he usually is, more in line with some of his more recent material like "What Goes Around" and "Lovestung". lol it's also not as high as I remember it being, which is probably why I liked it!

I am often pleased by African American musicians.

He sounds way the fuck off-pitch and goat-like through most of the song. Worst vocal performance I've heard from him by far.

i apparently didn't see or vote in the first poll

1. pop ya collar
2. yeah!
3. you make me wanna
4. confessions part ii
5. u got it bad
6. burn
7. caught up

he gets nasal again at the end but... off-pitch? Um... no.

I hate a lot of how he sounds when he goes into bleat mode, but he's pretty much never off-pitch on record and rarely off-pitch in his live performances.

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SuperTwilson
6 days ago

@RuthIessVillain he realised women loved his sex and his ego grew thats what happend !!!

really need to stop reading usher youtube comments.

everything post "love in this club" is so depressing, even the ones that aren't complete trash ("lil freak" and "hot tottie")

wait, swap "burn" and "confessions part ii" in my ranking

U Remind Me...I really like the remix with Method Man, even if it was kind of an embarassing verse lyrically, the beat they used underneath was cool.

crap I forgot about My Way....still think I'm sticking though

If U Got it Bad wins I am going to cry. I heard that song everywhere the summer it came out and it is just the most soul-crushingly boring song.

RONG

so RONG

ban

why is it always straight to the ban with you

he's the bad cop

sorry dan

i'm not trying to ban u btw

torn between u got it bad and u don't have to call- but u don't have to call obv. wins because let's party.

I think my appreciation of U Got It Bad was elevated by the fact that it described how I felt about someone at the time to a T....

the thing about "u got it bad" is that "burn" is actually better, but both are so great

U Don't Have to Call was in the running, though I like the remix w/ Ludacris better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AszPTJXIgM&ob=av3e

for real, tho

man u got it bad is relevant to me most of the time. u don't have to call is too. Just check in with me on any given day and ask which one.

both luda verses are so classic

i'm sure i quoted them in the other thread but

let's hit the club & girls'll take their shirts off
if not for me than for the raspberry smirnoff

really right at the height of his rmx reign

we throwin up As like summa cum laude

I feel like burn takes u don't have to call and u got it bad and puts them in a nice emotional sack for you to carry around conveniently. let it burn.

I never got the love for "Burn"

lol the Smirnoff line is always the one I think of when I think of that remix.

cuz you KNOW that its OVER

oh you know what I take that back, "Burn" is pretty good, I think it's one of the "Confessions" that left me bemused

idk there's something about "burn" that just hits me so hard -- i like the beat a lot, the spaciousness, i think it's a great vocal performance too, dipping in and out of high register -- also think the second verse is cool, "boo-ooo" part, "umpteem hours" part etc

you make me wanna

i used to hate on "confessions part 2" and i have no idea why

the other confessions is arguably better tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTJGGXo6gy4

sort of forgot how righteous the "u got it bad" guitar solo is

so many great songs but its burn burn burn burn burn

Torn b/wn "Burn" and "You Make Me Wanna".

"U Remind Me"
"U Got It Bad"
"U Don't Have to Call"

I am a big fan of Usher's "U" period

^^^^

U mad

jk I am just having fun w/my irrational hatred for U Got It Bad.

the thing about "u got it bad" is that "burn" is actually better

― high efficiency unit (J0rdan S.), Friday, September 24, 2010 12:51 PM Bookmark

a) "actually"
b) no

brr, fuck a choosing between these. anyone mind if i rhapsodise a little about the early stuff & related miscellany though?

'call me a mack' is pretty inessential - main conclusion to take is a 15 year old in the 90s sounds twice the realer dude than grown-ass men in the here & now. (also possible fodder for kids in r&b thesis i guess; usher is allowed a pretty pragmatic edge to his boasting on this, it's not cutesy bluster.)

'can u get wit it' - magnificent devante swing godhead, nuff said. here's his own gangsta lean remix and then the extended version of the og: treat yourselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy_SFKRlrbM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVZYZD7vmt8

'think of you' - maudlin puppy love given everyday pause for thought by textbook puffy/hitmen opportunostalgic concoction (bit of 'who got the props', something else familiar); distilled to lovely effect by lord of the sad pandas chucky thompson's bad boy remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNSz1fQgrY

'the many ways' -

**-71 There Goes My Baby - Usher
when usher was 14 and looked like mannie fresh he had al b sure writing him dope ballads, now he just cravenly samples 'nite & day' like any new jack. smh.

― r|t|c, Thursday, 25 February 2010 13:44 (6 months ago) Bookmark

kind of enjoy 'there goes my baby' on a duhh mindless tip now though heh.

'the many ways' is pretty brilliant actually. great chorus with a quietly determined sincerity that would most probably have sounded trite coming from an older man.

Girl I've learned my lesson
No, we can't let others in
Misery loves some company
They don't see it's from within

a) "actually"
b) no

― The Reverend, Friday, September 24, 2010 4:00 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

i used "actually" properly

http://www.billboard.com/column/the-juice/usher-s-20-biggest-billboard-hits-1007252152.story#/column/the-juice/usher-s-20-biggest-billboard-hits-1007252152.story

this is really awesome http://rapradar.com/2013/02/24/usher-ludacris-lil-jon-at-so-so-def-show/

So much love for this

^____________________________^

hadn't heard "burn" for probably years until it came on the radio the other day, man, what a song. really struck me what an obvious "papers" antecedent it was too

ok the idea of "Papers" being more of an Usher touchstone than "Burns" is so bizarre I almost wonder if you were originally from earth

lol Burns

??

oh i just meant i hadn't been thru the ursh discography in a while and the song was a nice trip down memory lane, i know it was huge

I still hear it pretty frequently tho! I haven't heard "Papers" since it was out

Boo-urns

also 'confessions' the album is really great stuff

the first 7 or 8 tracks on my list are really some of my favorite songs of all time -- early usher means a lot to me

i might like "u remind me" better actually

― high efficiency unit (J0rdan S.), Friday, September 24, 2010 2:00 PM (4 years ago)

everything about this post

everything about that album really except "Yeah"

I am a big fan of Usher's "U" period

― Monkeys? Um, no. (HI DERE), Friday, September 24, 2010 2:01 PM (4 years ago)

^yes

i also include bUrn

I love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx36wHIUS5k

so when Usher says in the rap on "My Way" that his mind is on "seven digits, before I pay heaven's skies a visit"

is he saying literally the only thing he wants before he dies is this girl's number

or that he thinks her boyfriend is going to murder him for hitting on her

or millions of dollars?

lol i didn't even consider that one

Either way, seven digits doesn't get you what it used to

i miss when you could dial seven digits and reach someone.

that ended in like middle school for me

Confessions is masterful.

f u if you disagree

Is there any Usher fan who would?

Probably not.

I address the skeptics.

i heard "pop ya collar" (mistyped the first word as 'poop' btw) recently for the first time since its original run. i didn't even realize it was by him back then! very indistinctive, alarmingly mediocre song for him. apparently it was actually a big hit in the uk or some other places? i guess it could be described as catchy

I don't think of "Pop Ya Collar" as indistinct or mediocre, though I guess it could be said it doesn't really lean hard into Usher's singing skills - which I think is more a reflection of the fact that it's such a She'kspere / Kandi song that there's no room left for Usher to really insert much of his personality into the mix (which may in practice land in the same territory as "indistinctive").

The same could be said of She'kspere and Kandi's songs for Destiny's Child and Pink - some of which are peerless and epochal, but none of which really focus on the singers per se except and to the extent that Kandi came up with a great asymmetrical top line for some of them.

i like "U Don't Have to Call (Remix)" more than mot of his

*most

"Climax" would be a strong contender for winning this poll if it was run again (for the third time)

i go back and forth between that and "Burn" as my fave