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:::Music Review:::
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Usher – "Confessions"
by William Ashanti Hobbs
author and co-owner of Meroen Press
June 2004
Though truthfulness and betraying one's trust are
reasonably diametrical, let Usher's "Confessions" show
officially that, dogs, even young ones, are far more
intriguing to women when the two are combined.
Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, once said
that sex is 'full of lies.' Morrison went on to claim
that the body 'tries to tell the truth.
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But, it's
usually too battered with rules to be heard, and bound
with pretenses so it can hardly move.' In his opinion,
we 'cripple ourselves with lies.' It’s all about being
free in realness with Usher. When Usher decided to
name this album "Confessions" he meant it.
You've heard about the break up, his cheating. I've
walked through grocery stores and overheard grown
women discussing Usher and Chili's break up like it
was a soap opera. Though much of the subject matter in
the songs are fictitious, in every case, there was
undying sympathy for Usher. Sound different from the
usual scarlet letter brothers get nowadays? What's the
secret?
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Answer: Tell her before it gets out in a CD with
bangin' tracks and kick your own ass over messing up
before she regains her senses. When most male singers
are lying through their teeth of how they much more
they know about women than other men in order to be
the unfulfilled yet commercially viable romantic
daydream to women far and wide, Usher has managed to
use failures in his own relationships to reveal a
level of manhood seldom seen in the new luminaries of
R&B.
"Yeah! (featuring Lil' Jon/Ludacris)" sounds
suspiciously like Petey Pablo's "Freek a Leek", but
Usher does Pablo one better in rounding out the black
male fantasy of being seduced in a club by a "dime."
Lil' John compliments the smooth Usher with his
trademark growl. Ludacris spits divine on this ode to
club life. Every line packs the wit he's known for.
"Throwback" has the gritty-fuzzy guitar of the Jackson
5 era. This is the beginning of seeing Usher's
undeniable talent for revealing the inner turmoil of
men's hearts: "I love you girl more than life itself,
but if a chick that's tight steps up a certain way, I
will do the hell outta her!" Even when he is truly
repentant, a sense of manhood remains in tact that
most of his older contemporaries forsake as they fall
headfirst into a world of begging and whining best
left to the likes of Otis Redding and Keith Sweat.
"Confessions - (Interlude)" is one of the most
meaningful interludes on an R&B (and hip hop) album in
years. Usher flexes considerable chops when suddenly
receiving a phone call while in the studio from his
chick on the side informing him that she's expecting.
This dovetails into "Confessions, Part II." The
strength of Part II is not the almost too simple
melody, but his redemption of being "man enough" to
tell his main woman about the other woman and
impending child himself. The mess he's caused is
substantial and, because of the heartfelt candor in
the lyrics, you can see every dude that ever ruined a
good thing tapping his dashboard as he rides with the
CD in the deck saying, "damn, that's, that's what I
was feelin'." Usher has destroyed a relationship in
grand fashion but avoids any stigma by somehow
eliciting the feeling one gets when coming upon the
clumsy, sweet-breathed and tender-pawed family puppy
after it has made a mess of the house.
"Burn" is the "Let's Just Kiss and Say Goodbye" of
today's generation. It has the emotional depth and
maturity that is totally lacking in most of today's
R&B singers (male and female) whose songs dealing with
breakups tend to short-circuit into talk-show styled
name-calling. Unlike Confessions II's melody, "Burn"
is dead on with its whimsical strings and soothing
bassline. From a distance, after he gets the break up
he asked for, a casual observer could state that the
back and forth Usher goes through can be written off
as another example a black man that can't make up his
mind over who and what he wants, but:
Sendin' pages I ain't supposed to
Got somebody here but I want you
Cause the feelin ain't the same by myself
Callin' her your name
Ladies tell me do you understand?
Now all my fellas do you feel my pain?
It's the way I feel
I know I made a mistake
Now it's too late
I know she ain't comin' back
Usher is torn. The bitterness in all of us wants to
laugh, but we remember our worst moments and let it
slide.
In "Truth Hurts", Usher beats haters to the punch by
going so much further in kicking his own ass, you
expect to see doo-doo on the heel of his shoes. Here,
he finds himself paranoid and insecure of his woman's
whereabouts. He croons old school reasonings to
assuage his heart. Again the music is laid back and
almost the antithesis of a situation where most male
artists his age, hip hop or otherwise, cannot resist
this chance to bash all women once and for all. No,
Usher actually comes to realize the suspicion that
nags him is his own guilt of cheating. Soul-searching.
"Simple Things" showcases Usher's pop song versatility
while calling for a shift in the priorities of young
brothers/wannabe ballers raised off the gold digger's
perspective of buying love with the finer things in
life. "Bad Girl" gives a shout out to the same type of
girl most likely to leave her Prada bag with a
girlfriend and, with Manolo Blahnik heels still on,
breaks you off in the bathroom. It packs grumbling
bass under guitar riffs that bring to mind mid to late
70's funk like Rufus' "You Got the Love".
"That's What It's Made For" draws you in with
satisfying, undemanding flutes and honestly explores
the heat of heats (the irrational primal scream of
unprotected sex). It would have really worked if this
song came before Confessions I and II. "Can U Handle
It?" offers the dreamy, sensuality of Prince. Usher
shows considerable control vocally in this foray into
music for the slow hand. The nagging fear of his
revealing too much against the need to possess his
object of affection puts him on the level of Ginuwine
or Tyrese when he pulls out all stops. Though steeped
in soul, Usher is on his way to becoming a superstar
beyond the level of those artists previously
mentioned. And you're going to be with him all the
way. You may hate what he's allegedly done to Chili,
but you'll be mesmerized with the way he's dealing
with it.
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