Boys Run The World: Usher’s Looking For Myself Review

Usher’s seventh studio album and fourth US number one album is a delightful mixture of Pop/ Dance and R&B.

I won’t lie, initially when I first listened to the album, I dismissed it as another generic, electro-pop watered down album that saw Usher desperately trying to remain relevant with the young ones but after a few spins, it didn’t take me long to be convinced that this was a great album. Not Usher’s finest work, but still a good listen.

 

The album opens up with the dance electro pop; “Cant Stop Wont Stop” a generic dance/ pop number, the song is nice and has some urban influences, it’s an overall nice dance track, but nothing to jump and down about.

The track then leads to the second single; “Scream” and now I remember why I started feeling negative about the album when I first heard it. The back to back dance songs just gave me the impression that the album was going to be heavily electro/dance influenced and some of us are just over these DOOF! DOOF! DOOF! Noisy songs. Our R&B  artists should do go back to singing what they are good at and leave this DOOF! DOOF! DOOF! To the kids.

 

The third track on the album is the lead hit single; “Climax”. This song is just perfection! From lyrics to production to Usher’s Maxwell-esque vocals. Yes!!! This is the Usher we all fell in love with, and this is what we want and expect from. When you hear the song without paying attention to the song, you’d think that it was a song about sex ala Chris Brown and his Porn sister Kelly Rowland, but when you actually listen to the lyrics you hear that it’s actually a break up song, a sibling to his classics like “U Got It Bad” and “Separated.

Only Usher can make breaking up sound so sexy. A very well produced and creative song.

The fourth song on the album is a song titled; “I Care For You”. A very futuristically awesome song, my favorite on the album. The first time I heard this song I was like; This song is so Timbaland and Aaliyah, I can actually close my hear Aaliyah’s vocals on this song and this just goes to show how advanced and futuristic the late Aaliyah’s sound was. After I likened the song to Aaliyah I went to check who produced it, and guess what? Danja who was mentored by Timbaland produced the song. So guess I was not that far off.

“Show Me” is a beautiful up-tempo jam that has some old school R&B vibes, another winner on the album.  Yes Usher, this is what you are supposed to be doing.

“Lemme See” featuring Rick Ross, production-wise kind of reminds me of Kelly Rowland’s “Motivation”. It’s a nice song, but nothing special.

“Twisted” featuring Pharrell is a typical N*E*R*D production with their trademark drums and beats. It’s a nice song, but it sounds more like a Pharrell song than an Usher song.

“Dive” is the eighth track on the album, its mid-tempo ballad. Another nice sex-infestation cut. *cues Kelly Rowland whipping weave*

 

We then head to; ‘What Happened To You” a nice relaxed mid-tempo a bout missing a loved one. Followed by the old-school pop infused title track; ‘Looking For Myself” featuring Steele. The song has a very nice melody, very 60s Beatles/ Beach Boys type of sound.

Track eleven; “Numb” is another elctro-pop dance number, It’s a nice song that has nice lyrics that are followed by; DOOF! DOOF! DOOF! It actually reminds me of Chris Brown’s “Wake Me Up”, which I mentioned earlier that it also reminded me of a certain Rihanna song, Do you see where I’m going with this…

Track 12 “Lessons For The lover” a typical old school Usher mid-tempo ballad, teaching lovers how to keep the flame burning,

It’s a very sexy number. *cues Kelly Rowland walking slow motion in lingerie*

 

Track Thirteen; “Sins Of My father”;  is a stone winner and one of the best songs on the album, coming with a very old school ode to the Motown sound. Usher is crooning about how his father’s absence in his life caused him to be promiscuous. If his father had been a better man, he probably would have also been better, now he’s paying for the sins of his father

The closing track on the album titled; “Euphoria” is another electro/pop cut. You know how it goes; DOOF! DOOF! DOOF! *sigh*

Score: 7.5/10

By Zamani Khethelo 

@Za_Maniac

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