Usher - Classic or Dud?

MILLION-SELLING 'CONFESSIONS'!

R&B star USHER has sold over a million copies of his new album in the US in just one week.

The singer tops the charts with 'Confessions', ending Norah Jones' 'Feels Like Home''s seven-week reign at the top.

'Confessions'' 1.1 million sales mean it has now surpassed 'Feels Like Home' as the year's fastest-selling album.

Usher and Jones, whose album sold 1.02 million in its first week, now stand as the only two artists to debut in seven-figure territory since *N Sync's 'Celebrity' sold nearly 1.9 million copies its first week in July 2001.

Usher's label, Arista Records, have revealed 'Confessions' is its biggest release in the label's 30-year history, beating the 689,000 first-week sales posted by Notorious BIG's posthumous 1997 album 'Life After Death'.

Usher has sold nearly ten million albums in the United States to date, according to SoundScan.

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Didnt Justin peak out at #2 with justified?

This is true. Everyone in the music industry lives in a great big house. MTV will be filming soon for a reality series. You will be chosen as the special guest star if you post on the Kanye West thread.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/urbannews/040304_usher.shtml

Usher called Justin a "follower" on Radio 1 last month, and challenged him to a dance-off in some other interview.

Which means, of course, that they'll be releasing a massively-hyped duet in the next eight months.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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?

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!

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

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.

http://www.angelfire.com/band2/slayerrobfl/images/ugly3.jpg

These days its boo-oooo for me.

what is "the best sense" of er, "depressed loss-of-meaning r&b"? i mean i got a lil nostalgic kick out of the n.e.r.d zombie too for a sec but to go so far as to say it rules just seems like being pugnacious about closing your playbook sometime around 2006

some of the album is nicely produced, some taxidermy is nicely enbalmed

It's utterly disillusioned in a way that most quasi-nihilistic hedonist r&b doesn't even try to be. Hence more interesting.

It's not the young & trendy numbness of abel & co, but a beaten down, at-the-end-of-the-rope-so-I-might-as-well-laugh disenchantment. It felt refreshing to me, at least. I haven't listened to it in a while though.

http://i.imgur.com/NRb4TVn.jpg

i don't really recall discerning a strong consistent persona like that at all thru the karaoke smoke but maybe i'll listen again sometime

wait why did this "girls just wanna have fun" song not end up on the album

new album out at midnight, produced entirely by zaytoven

Usher's dropping a new album at midnight, produced entirely by Zaytoven. pic.twitter.com/OrsAV8h6ec

— Meelz 💪🏾 (@MeelzTV) October 11, 2018

sounds like he's trying to be future :-/

This is going to be bad I’m sure

Zaytoven is a hilarious name

pretty forgettable on my initial couple listens

His new single with Ella Mai is fantastic

https://youtu.be/MMitI4VbSuo

actually pretty hyped that he's doing the Super Bowl halftime next year

I wondered why people I knew suddenly wanted to discuss how awesome they found Confessions in 2004.

i can never not hear it luda style as ursher and well reality is confounding in a lot of ways. like why the fuck is urshur at the big game TM?

*i think i said this before better scan*

And now I'll always have a little voice say "Ursher" in my head. That Yeah song. Urg.
― Hunter (Hunter), Sunday, February 22, 2004 8:58 PM (nineteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg i am dying right now second time today it is sad rip me

listening to his peak era albums in advance of this weekend. my way is very refreshing as a cd-era r&b album that comes in at a cool 9 songs, 36 minutes. all the songs are pretty good, too.

new album is okay. still excited for his performance

Confessions is that uncommon thing: the biggest album is the best album. I dig My Way too.

yes confessions is great, pretty much all the way through.

"Kissing Strangers" off the new album is him at his midtempo best

The back half of new album >>> front half

Rollerskating while singing live on that stage was crazy ballsy.

supposedly something he's been doing at his vegas residency, so at least he's had practice