Hard II Love is Usher’s eighth LP, and while it’s tempting to write something into the four-and-a-half years between this and his last one-the Pitchfork-approved Looking 4 Myself, thanks to its Diplo-produced single, “ Climax”-he also took four years off between Confessions and Here I Stand. I heard it at a club this weekend and people came unglued in the way they come unglued to any number of Usher songs they were finger pointing, grinding on their partners, and screaming a lot. It’s a shame it didn’t get pushed to radio in May or June it’s the song of September, and should have been song of the summer. A song that stretches a metaphor about the seminal New Orleans rap crew and Usher’s seminal bedroom skills to its near breaking point-but never becomes corny, somehow-and features probably the most coherent Young Thug verse ever. You might be able to add “No Limit,” the hit single from his new Hard II Love, to that list, even though it’s only been a couple weeks. We’re all going to hear “Love in This Club” and “My Way” and “Yeah!” and “Climax” and “Caught Up” and “U Got It Bad” at every wedding until we die, and no one even has any complaints about that. Without us ever really publically discussing it, Usher quietly became our generation’s Marvin Gaye an R&B artiste plugging away at classic jams that define an entire generation (they both even have a divorce record). He’s one of the few artists to make it out of the nostalgia trap of the ‘90s alive and intact, and to make vital music the whole time (sorry Jay Z). He holds smash hits across three decades, and until Adele seemed like he’d be the last artist to receive a Diamond album certification from the RIAA (thanks to Confessions). He hasn’t even needed a “comeback” narrative he never even went away. It seems impossible to consider, especially for those of us who experienced our first dances with the opposite sex in middle school gyms to his music, but Usher Raymond IV has been making hit records and been a godhead on R&B radio for 20 years.
This week's is Hard II Love, the 8th album from Usher. Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend your week with.
0 kommentar(er)
