allow that
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Post by allow that on Mar 19, 2015 16:18:27 GMT -5
I will never understand why anyone thought Scream AND Numb needed to come before that. Because they're both safe as hell and he's on RCA. Even on the Urban end, I like "Lemme See" but it was sooo safe. And don't even get me started on how many album tracks should have come ahead of "Dive." I still wonder how "Looking For Myself" would have done as a pop only single; it's so fresh in sound and honestly sounds it was created specifically to be a single. Just enough of a risk where its chart performance could have gone either way, but would have really paid off if it hit. Oh, and Imma let you slide on this for GK and SCTGITY, but I will not accept this Clueless shade! Ha ha I mean "Clueless" is by far the best of the five songs that were released/leaked last year, but it still lacks the "wow" factor that the L4M highlights had. I do like it though.
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Post by asfoster87 on Mar 19, 2015 20:06:50 GMT -5
Usher's picture perfect nice guy charm doesn't fit in with that, it lacks edge. Which makes it even more frustrating that... ... Justin Timberlake can walk away with s**t like "Mirrors" opening radio's arms despite feeling dated and not fitting in because his (fake ass) picture perfect nice guy charm happens to come in a white package. (Sorry I just couldn't resist finishing the sentence). I do agree that there's aspects of Usher's image that seem a bit dated now. But it's also tough to add edge to a personality that's so established and pull it off authentically. For now, I think his strategy of doing a ton of urban features ("New Flame," "Body Language," "The Matrimony") and the occasional pop/dance one ("Don't Look Down") is a good way to keep his name afloat after last year's mess. He's probably best to focus on urban sounds and drop a remix of his singles for pop... that Disclosure remix should have dropped no later than one month after the original came out- not once it had already been falling down the charts for a while. "Climax" is every bit the quality of song you'd want from someone of Usher's stature. I was sure it was going to be a career-lifting, Hot 100 #1 moment when I had first heard it. To be fair it was #2 on the 2012 Year End R&B chart and arguably his most acclaimed single ever, so its failure to crossover (when NOTHING from the R&B chart was anyway) shouldn't have steered Usher's camp towards making safe ass choices on the pop and urban end alike for the rest of that era. But 2012 was such an odd time to be a crossover artist anyway; Chris, Nicki, Beyonce, Ne-Yo, etc all suffered from one end of the spectrum. Now Usher's stuck in a space where he can't go "too electro" without fearing backlash when the reality is his best zone is working with Diplo to make electro R&B. So back at his coulda-been trendmaking moment he was stuck between full-on generic EDM at Pop and the polar opposite of it at Urban when he ideally would have bridged the disconnect and cleaned up with his own sound by dropping an album full of "2nd Round"'s and "Go Missing"'s. Accurate
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Mar 20, 2015 15:49:36 GMT -5
Anyway! Usher seemed to have had a fun St. Patrick's Day this year getting tipsy on Guinness at no other place than the Guinness Brewery in Dublin itself. That damn hat!
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popbox
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Post by popbox on Mar 21, 2015 2:28:26 GMT -5
Obvious conundrums aside, I still wonder how differently the L4M era could have gone had he released Euphoria instead of Scream. Euphoria was a sleeping giant, and I will never understand why anyone thought Scream AND Numb needed to come before that. Ironically despite it clearly being a pop song something about his voice on it took me back to 2001 Ursh, and it's the one song that I think urban purists might have cut him a pass for, because it just felt so epic. Also could have lent itself well to a few urban mixes. Thank you! Euphoria is THE EDM Usher song to date (sorry Climax, but step aside). Never understood how some people didn't hear the smash potential in that one. It was there, as surely as I've ever been about that sort of thing. I also could just see an epic music video to accompany it, and I actually had the whole concept mapped out in my head, lol.
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Post by Glove Slap on Mar 21, 2015 2:32:38 GMT -5
I remember when the first snippets of Euphoria were played live. It's still one of his best and it was so so saddening to hear Scream premiere afterwards.
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Mar 21, 2015 9:45:53 GMT -5
Add me to the "Euphoria" love but I can understand why it was passed in 2012. It was only three little years ago but every pop staple was coming still coming forward with generic electropop; very few (if any?) purer EDM songs were breaking through at radio. Swedish House Mafia had flopped with each of their single attempts in the US as of then. "Scream" and "Numb" both felt like pop songs; "Euphoria" felt like an EDM song. It's almost the opposite of now where I think "Euphoria" would do the best of the three, but back then the other two were safer choices. And we all know how SAFE they felt the need to play things.
I remember in 2013 when Usher joined The Voice and Swedish House Mafia just scored a pop #1 with "Don't You Worry Child," there were talks of promoting "Euphoria" as a joint single. Unfortunately nothing came of that.
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Post by Live Your Life on Mar 21, 2015 17:31:36 GMT -5
A new song with Chris Brown called "All Falls Down" leaked. It doesn't sound bad, but it's definitely unfinished:
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Mar 22, 2015 11:56:15 GMT -5
"All Falls Down" is a bore. I know it's unfinished, but the best carpenters and engineers one could possibly hire can't build a house off of a shit blueprint.
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Mar 31, 2015 15:12:18 GMT -5
Rico Love revealed that Usher actually hated/hates "Scream".
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Post by Caviar on Mar 31, 2015 17:36:33 GMT -5
That whole interview was bitter. He even threw Brandy under the bus. His s**t has always been stale.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2015 17:55:37 GMT -5
I wish Rico would have clarified his statement more. This is what he said specifically:
So it's weird because he's comparing a song Usher doesn't like but released anyway to a Brandy project that didn't get released, presumably by Brandy's choice. Those aren't actually similar situations at all unless Rico is saying one of his songs got bumped for Scream's release, and I doubt that is the case since Rico did get a single off that album (Dive). And I can't tell if he's saying "Usher thinks this song is bullshit, but chose it as a single for a quick hit" or if he is saying "Usher thinks this song is bullshit, but the label chose it as a single for a quick hit." Usher even has a writing credit on Scream, though I don't know if that's real or a vanity credit; he almost never talks about his writing process. The way Scream got released (after Climax didn't immediately shoot up pop and RCA IMO wasn't putting any weight behind it) IS bullshit so maybe Usher just hated the circumstances.
For this same reason I'm conflicted about Don't Look Down. I really feel like Usher likes dance and EDM flavored music, and he's good at it. But apparently it was RCA's bright idea to put him on that song, knowing that he is still in a precarious state with urban fans. Do they just not care about him trying to rebuild his fanbase? Do they think he's better off concentrating on pop? That bothers me. But if Usher is on board with it, whatever judgment or side eye I have has to be directed at Usher himself. I just wish I knew how much say he has in all of this. I'd like to think - even if it is coming down to him releasing songs he isn't passionate about for the sake of relevancy - that it is at least a decision he is making on his own. He is too old and been in the game too long to still have no say in his career moves, and when we criticize him I want it to be legit.
I have such a back and forth opinion on Scream myself. There are days when I'm completely over it, and other days when I listen to it and I feel like I could do a three hour workout with that song on repeat.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2015 18:03:12 GMT -5
That whole interview was bitter. He even threw Brandy under the bus. His s**t has always been stale. I won't diss Rico completely; the work he did on L4M was solid. But I did think it was bratty to say he's not writing for other people any more simply because he can't control what is chosen or released. If you don't write anything then you're guaranteeing you won't have anything out there. He's not even giving himself a chance to rack up any hits when he does that.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2015 19:10:23 GMT -5
Rico sounds bitter and stubborn. I would expect someone behind so many hits to understand that sometimes things don't materialize. Especially with Bran'nu of all people, who often starts and stops 2-3 times before finding a sound and releasing an album.
Thank God Usher hates Scream though, it's by far my least favorite single of his.
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Apr 1, 2015 16:42:15 GMT -5
In the middle of all of this TIDAL hype whatever you want to call it, Usher also swung through Miami to join Martin Garrix at ULTRA. It looks like this teenage DJ knows how to pay his respects to royalty properly (and that the two genuinely get along). https://instagram.com/p/0zbNBWw_16 They actually broke a streaming record with the performance.
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allow that
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Post by allow that on May 22, 2015 10:56:04 GMT -5
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#LisaRinna
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Post by #LisaRinna on May 22, 2015 18:14:56 GMT -5
Can he just drop the damn alberm?
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Post by asfoster87 on May 22, 2015 19:35:09 GMT -5
I wouldn't be surprised if the album doesn't drop this year.
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Post by wavey. on May 23, 2015 8:50:31 GMT -5
We need that follow up second single :kii:
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Post by Live Your Life on May 30, 2015 15:46:29 GMT -5
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wavey.
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Post by wavey. on May 31, 2015 10:47:23 GMT -5
I'm mad his ass couldn't just stay still and record.
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allow that
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Post by allow that on Jul 2, 2015 8:49:40 GMT -5
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Linnethia Monique
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Post by Linnethia Monique on Jul 2, 2015 10:43:15 GMT -5
They played "You Make Me Wanna" on the radio this morning and now my voice is shot to sh!t trying to hit all them runs.
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think pink.
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Post by think pink. on Jul 2, 2015 11:22:11 GMT -5
10/10 I know all bae's lyrics .
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Post by Caviar on Jul 2, 2015 12:16:11 GMT -5
How did his tour do?
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Post by wavey. on Jul 2, 2015 12:21:15 GMT -5
7/10
And I failed on the EASY shit.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2015 14:04:35 GMT -5
9 out of 10, only because I misread the OMG question (thought it was asking me for the song title but it was asking for the lyric). lol at them trying to throw a curveball with the you/U questions. That was definitely a setup. He's either #11 or #14 on the Top Global Concert Tours list, depending on which article you prefer to believe. That UK article looks like it has everyone in the same order, it just omits a few acts that the NY Times included for some reason. Anyway, URX didn't do eye-popping numbers, but it looks like it performed decently enough. However this list doesn't give details like how many dates each person had, how close to capacity each venue sold, etc. so it's not as comprehensive or comparable as it could be.
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Post by NeRD on Jul 9, 2015 17:26:35 GMT -5
Da fuq is goin on? Where is the album?
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Post by lyhom on Jul 9, 2015 17:31:16 GMT -5
lol I got 9/10 on the quiz (failed the "U Got It Bad" question ftr)
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Post by Zinc. on Jul 12, 2015 4:42:18 GMT -5
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Post by wavey. on Jul 12, 2015 10:23:33 GMT -5
Well.
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