NEW MUSIC
Usher: ‘Here I Stand’
Swagger in tact, CD has its ups and downs
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
This review should probably begin with a deep breath.
Ready?
1996-98 AccuSoft Inc., All right/Jive Records
Usher’s latest CD, ‘Here I Stand,’ occasionally soars with tracks like ‘Love in this Club’ and ‘This Ain’t Sex’. But some of the songs get muddled in lovey-dovey land.
Usher. LaFace Records/Zomba. 17 tracks.
Grade: B-
In the four years between his last CD and this new one, Atlanta R&B superstar Usher has had the best-selling album of his 14-year career; drawn capacity crowds to his Broadway debut; unveiled a fragrance line; cut the ribbon on an Inman Park restaurant; planned a wedding; called it off the day it was supposed to happen; then exchanged nuptials twice; had a son; lost his estranged father and replaced his manager mother, who steered his rise in popular music.
As much of a roller coaster as Usher’s personal and professional life has been during this time, so is “Here I Stand.”
Of course, there are high notes. This is Usher. And his voice —maybe the best thing about this album— has become a soul gem.
Just take the title track. The dreamy, swoon-inducing production is just what a bride would want to hear from her groom on their first day as man and wife.
A close second is the much sparer, guitar beauty “Something Special.” Also what a bride would want to hear from her groom at the altar.
See where this is going? There’s more.
“Before I Met You” is a stormy tale about a player’s life before meeting the woman he wanted to make his wife. There’s also “Lifetime,” a drowsy marriage proposal and the snappier “Appetite,” a warning about cheating on your wife.
On and on it goes.
Nothing against being happy that you’ve found the one — but a CD can start to feel like 12 too many songs when most of the tracks are only average.
Then there are plain uneasy moments, like the skittering arrangement of “What’s Your Name,” and the awkward “Trading Places,” where the sex symbol tries something “a little different.” Maybe role reversals work for Prince — which the plink-plink-plinking piano in “Trading” brings to mind (remember “The Beautiful Ones”?). But Prince wears heels and see-through pants, and Usher is the lower-case prince who snared a record deal as a confident, masculine teenager who could woo the ladies.
That same confidence can be heard in uptempo “Love In This Club,” WATCH VIDEO the first single from “Here” and the recent No. 1 single in the country. It also courses through “This Ain’t Sex,” another dance-floor-centered tune that draws a bit from classic Michael Jackson. You can even find swagger in “Best Thing,” another toast to monogamous bliss that manages to flash a bit of edge as Usher and Jay-Z name-check some of the past flings.
“Here I Am” is not the first time that Usher has gotten real personal with his music. The real turbulence of an affair and public split paid off for him big time with his 2004 album “Confessions,” as the CD had a history-making first week of sales and spun off hit after hit.
This time around, while Usher in no way plummets, “Here I Stand” only occasionally soars.
