Usher–More

Released November 22, 2010.
US: #70 (album version)
UK: #26 (RedOne remixed version)

I’ve liked quite a bit of Usher’s songs, as mentioned in my previous post, I enjoyed There Goes My Baby and also DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love. He had four other releases in 2010, if I recall correctly – Papers, Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) ft. Plies, Lil Freak ft. Nicki Minaj and OMG ft. will.i.am. The quality does range a lot; Papers was good and pretty much in the style of Burn and Moving Mountains, though the latter is still my choice for relationship troubles it was pretty decent. Hey Daddy is pretty middle of the road for me, with this questionable line:

And tonight we’re gonna do a lot of sexin’ – Doesn’t that sound insidious.

A little disturbing, and though it was kinda fun to listen to Plies when he did Bust It Baby (Pt. 2) with Ne-Yo, it seemed to up the disturbing factor a little; his shouty bridge here didn’t work for me. Lil Freak was admittedly fun and the heavy bass beats were good, though there’s unnecessary swearing, the lyrics are about a threesome, and Nicki Minaj releases 2 questionable lyrics:

I’m hotter than 100 degrees – Somehow this wouldn’t appeal to some of the Americans, or the scientists, for that matter.
…
Everybody loves Raymond! – HAHA, he’s Usher Raymond, yes……

Nevertheless, it was enjoyable. And then we had OMG, which was just… a rather weird mess, which though on a critical level I found horrible, actually wasn’t really that unlistenable at all! He hasn’t been doing badly, even on the weaker releases.

This one’s somewhat in between the best and the worst, but as far as I’m concerned doesn’t disappoint. Firstly, the RedOne version. Very danceable, as most of the producer’s releases have been, but is that ‘LET THE BEAT ROCK’ I hear in the vocal bridge section or something else? What exactly is that sound? I do not need to be reminded of Boom Boom Pow, and furthermore this sample was already used in OMG! Or am I hearing things?

The album version, second. Actually I think this is somewhat better than the RedOne remix, it’s more to my preference, I guess, with the harder, sharper, clearer drum hits, better introduction (I think so personally). But I still seem to hear some mechanical-ish voices in the background during the bridge. I don’t think it’s ‘LET THE BEAT ROCK’, something more like ‘GG-GIVE IT MORE’, but it’s annoying and I find detracts from the song.

Either way, I’m pleased by the vocal performance here. It’s strong, commendably timed and not easy to follow; at least he wasn’t wasting his pipes as much as compared to OMG or Lil Freak (though in the latter case I don’t mind, the track was fun nevertheless). Both versions are rather solid club-bangers; I can’t say whether I prefer this or DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love, both are very, very passable. Pitbull’s better than those irritating mechanical voices, but More (album version) has a beat I prefer.

Lyrically, this is one egotistical song, which isn’t a problem in and of itself, and the chorus though nonsensical (bring out the fire? Light what up and take what up higher? Push what to the limit???) is actually quite nice, I think. That said, there are bits that strike me wrongly, mainly in the pre-chorus sections.

Know y’all been patiently waiting, I know you need me, I can feel it,
I’m a beast, I’m an animal, – Somehow this sounds better done by Ke$ha.
I’m that monster in the mirror, – Why am I reminded of Man in the Mirror? Not good.
The headliner, finisher, I’m the closer, winner.
Best when under pressure one second’s left I show up – I see why this was used for the NBA, but… I don’t know what you’re trying to get at!

Despite the prechorus which I’m still confused about, most of it’s a good song, it’s definitely catchy. I’m a bit concerned with all these high ratings I’ve been awarding, but I guess it’s more normal for me to want to write about good songs, so the average would be quite a bit higher than 5.0 which is more like an average across the board for singles, whether I like them like Airplanes, fail to understand them, like, well, Teach Me How to Dougie, see them as overhyped (Airplanes (Part II), for one), or what.

OVERALL SCORE = 6.0 / 10
More is a solid club-banger that doesn’t disappoint. It’s slightly lighter in production than DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love (I’m talking about the album version) and it’s highly danceable, though it doesn’t do much more than come off as a by-the-numbers performance to me. Nevertheless, Usher by the numbers is still relatively good.