Yeeeeeeeeah man.

Today, I acquired a copy of Usher's new album, the atrociously-titled 'Looking 4 Myself'. Somewhat more surprisingly, and despite the desecration of the English language, I duly listened to it.

It is better than his last effort. However, that means very, very little, given how poor I thought the last album was.

On this album, he's becoming progressively less Usher, and more electro-pop-trash. Despite me hoping otherwise, the sound is predominantly, and heavily electro. While at least he does it better than on the last album, I'm still not a massive fan of this new sound. They've also done this weird thing with his voice when it's in the lower register. I think they've really warped it with autotune or something. Sounds strange and not like him at all.

For some bizarre reason, and I don't know whether it's his fault, or the producers', or whoever, but two of the best songs are from the ones that aren't on the proper album - that is, the ones that are only found on the deluxe edition, or whatever it's called. Like this one:



How amazing is it?! So smoove and cool.

On the album proper, the two best songs are a toss up between this:


and this:



Leaning more towards the latter, because I think it's truly innovative, well-constructed, melodically pleasing, cool, and a little bit different. Sort of electro, but heavily RnB.

I'm putting money on him reverting to R&B next time out, because I think this predominantly electro mess - not just with respect to him, but to music in general - is going to get stale really quickly. While I wouldn't say everything sounds the same, many songs now sound very similar, and it's all getting a tad boring. I first started loving his music because of how cool it was, and how nice his voice was. The electro is starting to ruin both aspects. While I don't think it would be pragmatic or interesting at all to revert to exactly the same sound, 'Say the Words' illustrates how old and new can be melded together with very pleasing results. 

Maybe it's more wishful thinking than any true prediction. Sometimes, though, they can be one and the same thing. (So profound right?).

Word of the Day: Melodically