I certainly overlooked Usher's latest album although I did have select songs from it, I neglected to listen to it all the way through. Part of that may have been it doesn't seem as much hype followed the release of Here I Stand. I loved loved his 2004 release of Confessions. Every song off of it was fresh, talked about real life issues in love, deception, and lust. I was impressed that he had grown up from the days of 8701 and before that when he was only touching the iceberg of relationships.
However, as far as grown man status goes Confessions has nothing on Here I Stand. I still like Confessions probably better, but there's a new sense of maturity in his latest release. Usher's grown as a man in general, he put away his player card and got married and had a son. That definitely shows in his music ; not that he doesn't have a few songs that are made for a dance floor. "Love in this Club"is certainly no ballad or anything deep. However, "Trading Places", "Here I Stand", "Moving Mountains", and the like have shown he's here to make some grown man music carrying on a position that Babyface once had when he expressed vulnerability, passion, and understanding of relationships in music.
I hate when I've slept on an album for a month or almost a year only to discover it's really on point, but better late than never.
No comments:
Post a Comment