It’s like, dude, seriously, you don’t get a pass on that. “This is going to be the hardest thing I think I ever had to do”.
Usher spends the whole song alternately apologizing to his main lady for knocking up another girl that he barely even knows and then trying to guilt main lady into not breaking up with him, because he was at least man enough to tell her. Salient point: This is the single wimpiest song on this theme ever. Track that deals with same “I been creeping” theme: “Confessions, Part II.”
Genius lyric: “I know that you gonna tear up the place / Punch me in my face / Pull the hot grits out”. Plus, when we get to the crucial Step Two part, a big huge timpani sound enters the mix, we get a deceptive “ba ba ba ba ba” break, they stretch out the tension so that his confession REALLY hits hard. Dupri’s fine, but come on, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, holy shit, the sound textures here are so deep I call them the Marianas Trench.
Main reason this song is better than “Burn”: It’s produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis rather than Jermaine Dupri. Step Two of “Truth Hurts”: He then admits that he’s only accusing her out of insecurity, because really it is Usher who has been fooling around on her, he’s copping to it.Įxample of said copping: “I been blaming you when I’m the one that’s doin’ wrong / I’mma go on / A guilty conscience is the real reason I wrote this song”. Step One of “Truth Hurts”: He at first accuses his paramour of creeping around with other men.Įxample of said accusation: “Whatever you was workin’ / I hope it was worth it, baby / Truth hurts / I got reason to believe you’ve been foolin’ around”. Extra points for not varying production techniques between Step One and Step Two, so it hits us harder.Įxpected reign on pop charts for this single: Four weeks at #1, probably in May.ĭifferent song on Confessions that follows same Step One/Step Two template: “Truth Hurts.” Tertiary reason for brilliance of “Burn”: Jermaine Dupri’s production, combination of robot noises, fakey synth strings, and Babyface guitar lines. Recent songs ripped off by melody line of “Burn”: “Ignition (Remix)” by R.Kelly, “Don’t Wanna Try” by Frankie J. Dude can just flat-out SANG, he proves that here, it’s an epic performance. Secondary reason for brilliance of “Burn”: Usher’s voice, which has only gotten better. Then, in Step Two, he realizes that he misses her, that he’s made a huge mistake, he wants her back after letting her go which was a huge mistake, “It’s been fifty-eleven days / Umm-teen hours / I’m gonna be burnin’ / Till you return”. In Step One, Usher is breaking up with his girl, he’s not happy but he wants to move on, she’s really sad about this, she can’t deal with it, he feels bad for her but he knows that she’s going to have to deal with her sadness and suffer a little before she can accept it, he says “You know that it’s over / You know that it was through / Let it burn / Got to let it burn”. Main reason for brilliance of “Burn”: Two-step concept of song, which goes like this. Number of other songs that feature guest raps or crunk production: 0.Īmount of surprise this should occasion, given general template of success in R&B being what it is, which is to have as many guest rappers and producers as possible: Lots.īrilliance of follow-up single “Burn”: Intense, white-hot-flame-like. Reasons for the success of “Yeah!”: 5 (Lil’ Jon’s undeniable dirty groovemastery, Usher‘s smoove-ass singing, Luda’s guest rap, general theme of being in club and dancing and seeing lady who “from a 1 to 10 she’s a certified 20” and dancing with her and she’s all like “yeah!”, Lil’ Jon’s appearance in video spraying champagne all over). Songs that are full-fledged club über-crunk salacious but not really dirty club bangers produced by Lil’ Jon with guest spots by Ludacris that, as of this writing, have been #1 on the pop charts for seven weeks in a row: 1 (“Yeah!”) Number of these that are “intro” or “interlude” tracks: 3. Number of listed tracks on this album: 17.
0 kommentar(er)
