You've been saying all night long
That you couldn't wait to get me home alone
What you gon' do to me
Don't talk about it, be about it
Let me see, let me see, let me see
Girl, I can't wait to get you home
Talk a good game mate, come on
Holler 'bout what you gon' do to me
Don't talk about it, be about it
Let me see, let me see, let me see
To the list of people who've had mind-altering experiences at Coachella, you can add Usher. In April he was a surprise guest at the music festival, and he says his seventh album, Looking 4 Myself, was inspired by the eclectic acts he saw there, including Euro-disco champs Swedish House Mafia (who produced two songs for L4M) and Aussie synth-rockers Empire of the Sun (who guest on the title track). Even Usher's new look off stage — the Buddy Holly glasses, the facial scruff — suggests that he's warming to indie music. Did he go into Coachella as a Top 40 guy and come out a hipster?
Well, he's not exactly taking a stand against party-rock anthems here. Looking 4 Myself still sounds like the Usher you know; it's just a little more interesting than his usual onslaught of skull-pounding beats and silk-sheets ballads. Cool-kid DJ Diplo (M.I.A., Robyn) produced the electro-glitchy single ''Climax,'' which he's compared, not unfairly, to Radiohead. (Avant-classical composer Nico Muhly also arranged the strings on it.) Amy Winehouse producer Salaam Remi eases into a Motown vibe on ''Sins of My Father,'' and Pharrell Williams brings it back to the '60s with the retro-soul vamp ''Twisted.'' The slower songs drag, and when it comes to romance, Usher's hilariously clueless: He proposes a nice ''gang bang'' for his lady, and offers to ''let me be your body soap'' (um, yuck). But when he reins himself in and lets the producers experiment, he's getting something better than just another loverman hit. He's always been popular, but now he sounds cool. B
Usher Raymond IV has carved out a megastar career not by innovating, but by seizing on dominant trends and delivering them more charismatically than anyone else. Looking 4 Myself finds him trying to grab a slice of every cake going: Eurotrash trance (Euphoria), hipster-friendly synth clouds (Climax, What Happened To U), grumbling dubstep drops (I Care For U, Can't Stop Won't Stop), the Neptunes used, amusingly, for a retro period piece (Twisted). Veering senselessly from genre to genre, the strategy is less coherent album, more disparate pick'n'mix – the same approach as Nicki Minaj's similarly scattershot Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, and one that undeniably makes sense in an iTunes/Spotify age. Like Minaj, Usher succeeds on his own terms. Looking 4 Myself is bloated and self-conscious, but when it hits the spot it's a feast of detailed, brilliantly gleaming R&B. Usher's vocals are in fine fettle – his falsetto lends his tortured paramour poses a degree of depth, while Lessons for the Lover finds him harmonising with himself to astounding effect. Most interesting is when the album goes in directions that don't cleave to obvious aesthetics: the swampy blues bassline and rattling percussion of Sins of My Father, the classical violin sample threading through bumping 808 bass on IFU, adding a touch of courtliness to Usher's lascivious come-ons. 4/5 stars
For some reason, I don't feel the hype is that big for this album. It sort of seems like it's coming out of nowhere. I think he will do ~300k, but I'm not 100% sure. I can honestly see as low as 200k first week, tbh.
I didn't want to be the one to reply to that post. It's like telling a kid that Santa doesn't exist.
