USHER - Hard II Love

Like it or not, Usher's influence on the world of r&b over the last two decades is undeniable. His is a formula too well constructed not to pay off commercially: care for image bordering on obsession, an ear finely tuned to shifting trends, and a study of Michael Jackson's technique that borders on outright plagiarism. Between electro-dance detours, supersonic falsettos and unctuous ballads, Usher became the leading male figure of the 2000s, hitting diamond sales with "Confessions" in 2004, and thus picking up the scepter of a throne that his contemporary R. Kelly trashed with his own hands, thanks to his sordid escapades with underage girls.

As a result, it's also Usher's fault that, in recent years, the r&b world has filled up with a whole string of male figures who've copied both his hyper-glossy style and his intense gym sessions: Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Omarion, Trey Songz and Jason Derulo are all skilled professionals, capable of making their way with trendy tracks and lascivious dance moves designed to show off their chiseled abs to a female audience. It was none other than the hyper-buff Derulo who, just last year, declared that "songwriting is like a muscle, the more you work it, the better you get". If he says so...

Usher certainly doesn't lack professionalism when it comes to music, and even though his name has, almost inevitably, become less chart-dominant than it once was, listening to this eighth studio album, "Hard II Love", confirms him as the genre's natural "godfather". His work is steeped in seasoned savoir faire and a relentless perfectionism in sound design and vocal delivery; the opening "Need U" (with a hand from Paul Epworth) is, to all effects, a solid track halfway between chart-ready r&b and classier sonics, while the Jackson-esque "Missing U" is built on a sample borrowed from Steely Dan's "Gaucho", and the track undeniably works a treat.

The intimate electro atmosphere of "Down Time" is also very fine, but the prize goes to the moment you'd least have bet on: across its eight and a half minutes, "Tell Me" rides through desert-like, post-apocalyptic scenery, halfway between the synthetic desolation of Kanye West's "808 & Heartbreak" and Frank Ocean's "Pyramids", which has sent our imaginations traveling so much in recent years.

Unfortunately, though, this doesn't make "Hard II Love" a memorable record as a whole, since, stretched across 15 tracks, the formula also ends up repeating itself through a series of songs as polished as they are lacking in bite or emotion - which, when it comes down to it, has always been the author's Achilles' heel. Amid lavish production and attention to detail, Usher is too busy smoothing out his wrinkles and rubbing up against whichever beauty is on hand to breathe new life into what we already know; the "filthy" bounce of "Bump", and moments of pure, almost-rapped urban r&b like "Let Me" and "Make U A Believer", are business-as-usual tracks already heard a few years back from the mouths of Jeremih, Drake or The Weeknd, while yet more flirtations with hip-hop show a formula that's eternally identical to itself - the guests this time round are Young Thug on "No Limit" and Future on "Rivals".

So, once again, Usher's formula stops halfway: never as exuberant as his idol Michael Jackson, yet at the same time almost always too polished to wield the soulman's weapon and conjure up a moment that goes beyond merely stylish. His may well be a prominent name on the contemporary r&b scene, but at this rate his star could well be headed for a natural decline as new, younger talent arrives - music like this usually doesn't capture the kind of critical acclaim still enjoyed today by his neo-soul-era peers such as D'Angelo and Maxwell.

"Hard II Love" flows well, and several tracks work great in clubs, but as a listening experience it's by no means transcendent. He could at least have swapped out the bonus track "Champions" (a horrid, peace-themed duet with Rubén Blades that appeared on the soundtrack to the film "Hands Of Stone") for the inexplicably unreleased "Good Kisser": it wouldn't have been enough to turn around the fortunes of the whole album, but it would at least have shown everyone that, when it comes to putting together a crowd-pleasing yet classy track with a top-notch rhythm section, Usher still knows his stuff.

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23/09/2016