Usher

8701

Decent release, nothing headturning...

Review Score:

(8/10)
Usher has had a knack for making hit songs, or getting on them. This ability to bring fans his upbeat R&B tracks brings a lot of anticipation for this album. He brings forth an album with many highs and lows. Some of the songs are sure fire hits and others are painstakingly hard to listen to. The biggest upside of this album is Usher's ability to create head moving upbeat tracks that will get the listener mouthing the lyrics right along with him. The downside is that Usher's album is mediocre in a very competitive industry. He lacks the vocal talents of a Carl Thomas or Donell Jones and does not have the charisma or newfound maturity of Ginuwine. Therefore this albums subject matter never diverges and strictly surrounds itself around Usher as a man who can get any girl anytime he wants.
The album starts off with the smash hit "U Remind Me". It is a very catchy song with a solid beat. Then the album moves into the painful "I Don't Know" with a horrible guest appearance from P. Diddy and an annoying beat. The strength of "Work It Out" is its catchy hook and a nice guitar influenced beat. "U Got It Bad" was the other major hit from "8701" and is a nice slower song. You knew someone had to make this song, "Pop Ya Collar", and it ended up being Usher. It is a mediocre song as the beat is awkward as it is upbeat, but not quite something to dance to. "If I Want 2" features JD and uses a nice sample of Notorious B.I.G. The song has nice singing and a catchy beat, but does not reach its maximum potential with JD's talking in the background and the extremely chauvinistic lyrics. I like the diversity on "Can't Let U Go" with a rock influenced beat. "With U" is a very disheartening song. It is only 55 seconds long and really could have been a great song if he would have made it longer. But it is followed into the very nice "Help Me" where Usher begins to step out of his egotistic persona and brings the albums most personal song. "Hottest Thing" uses a really solid beat as Usher creates the sleeper hit song of the album. "U Turn" is Usher's weak attempt to make the "new" fad. "Ttp" will definitely get everyone's head moving as the song is quite catchy.
All in all Usher brings a noteworthy release as it has enough hit songs to make noise on the R&B scene, however it lacks the personality and maturity that other artists are showing more of. All Usher fans should not be disappointed, but fans looking for a new R&B CD might want to listen to some of it before purchasing.

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