\n<\/p>\n
It has taken perseverance, extraordinary musical gifts and a little luck for Usher<\/a> to land where he is right now. At 45, the R&B singer and songwriter Usher Raymond is releasing his new album, \u201cComing Home,\u201d just two days before he will headline the Super Bowl halftime show. In December 2023, he completed an acclaimed 100-show residency in Las Vegas. His single \u201cGood Good,\u201d<\/a> released last summer, has racked up tens of millions of plays on Spotify. It\u2019s one of the 20 tracks on \u201cComing Home,\u201d an album that sums up and expands what Usher does best.<\/p>\n Usher returns in familiar guises on \u201cComing Home,\u201d his ninth solo album, and first since 2016. He plays a loyal partner (\u201cKeep on Dancin\u2019\u201d), a sensualist (\u201cPlease U\u201d), a heartsick ex (\u201cCold Blooded\u201d), a somewhat repentant cheater (\u201cOn the Side\u201d), a confident stud (\u201cBig\u201d) and a proud product of Atlanta (\u201cA-Town Girl,\u201d a catalog of local references that samples Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cUptown Girl\u201d).<\/p>\n The personas are familiar, and so is Usher\u2019s musical universe, with the supple physicality of his vocals floating in electronic soundscapes. But he still comes up with ingenious variations on his longtime subjects. \u201cGood Good,\u201d<\/a> which features Summer Walker and 21 Savage, is a downright mature post-breakup song about genuinely staying friends afterward. \u201cUsually my exes turn to enemies\/But this is different,\u201d Usher marvels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Usher is three decades into a recording career that hit its first commercial peak with his 1997 album, \u201cMy Way,\u201d and earned him five consecutive No. 1 albums from 2004 (the blockbuster \u201cConfessions\u201d<\/a>) to 2012 (\u201cLooking 4 Myself\u201d). He carries the skills of the analog era \u2014 when real-time performance was everything \u2014 into the digital landscape, making music that\u2019s exquisitely calculated but still places his voice at its emotional core.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That voice can be grainy or lascivious or achingly sincere, and it easily ascends to an otherworldly falsetto. Usher draws deeply on some of the best elements of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. He\u2019s also a precise, disciplined and riveting dancer \u2014 something to look forward to at the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n Usher\u2019s electronic R&B taps into slow-swaying 1970s soul, synthesized 1980s pop and 21st-century trap with equal dexterity; he can be carnal, earnest, mournful or ecstatic. And he\u2019s adept at the studio-collaborative methods of the 21st century, putting out songs with Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>, Lil Wayne<\/a>, Alicia Keys<\/a> and many others without being upstaged.<\/p>\n On Usher\u2019s most recent past albums \u2014 \u201cHard II Love,\u201d from 2016, and his 2018 collaboration with the producer Zaytoven, \u201cA\u201d \u2014 he strove to fit himself into a current sound, wedging his long-breathed phrases and pleasure-seeking instincts into the brittle, fractured imperatives of trap. The tension showed.<\/p>\n But after more than a year of revisiting his entire career with the shows in his Las Vegas residency, Usher has recognized his strengths: not getting mired in the bleak virtual terrain of trap, but providing a glossy, seductive alternative. During Usher\u2019s time between albums, K-pop was reviving \u2014 nearly to the point of plagiarism \u2014 both the sound and the dance moves of Usher\u2019s generation of R&B. He has capitalized on the K-pop connection. Another single released before \u201cComing Home\u201d was \u201cStanding Next to You (Usher Remix),\u201d<\/a> a duet with the K-pop star Jung Kook from BTS; it echoes both Jackson and the horns of Earth, Wind & Fire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Along with K-pop, Usher has also latched on to the African pop that has lately gone global. The Nigerian superstar Burna Boy joins on the title track of \u201cComing Home,\u201d a crisp electronic shuffle about returning from a tour and heading directly to the bedroom. \u201cRuin\u201d<\/a> \u2014 about an ex who left the singer so heartbroken he can\u2019t even speak to all the other girls who (humblebrag) are calling him \u2014 was produced by Pheelz, a Nigerian songwriter who also adds vocals. But its beat and its languid keyboard chords are closer to South African amapiano, leaving ample space for Usher\u2019s plaints.<\/p>\n Throughout the album, Usher cruises through the musical and dramatic challenges that he has set for himself. In \u201cOn the Side,\u201d he comes up with a new melody \u2014 faster, more syncopated, higher, jumpier \u2014 and a different mood and vocal tone for each verse. In \u201cKissing Strangers,\u201d as he sings about wishing he could forget a failed romance, he ricochets between sounding utterly alone and getting buffeted from all directions by the voices in his head.<\/p>\n \u201cComing Home\u201d could have trimmed back some of its 20 tracks. But its excess signals a self-confidence that seemed to elude Usher after \u201cLooking 4 Myself.\u201d Now he has proved that he didn\u2019t have to update his sound. He was here already.<\/p>\n Usher<\/strong>
\u201cComing Home\u201d
(mega\/gamma)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n