He’s way ahead of his age, showing a great range (including a falsetto that isn’t as annoying as f*ck) that makes all the tracks on the album be at least slightly unique. The album is certainly make or break on how much you enjoy Usher’s voice. Doesn’t lend itself well to grinding, does it? In general, the slower tracks work, with tunes like “Confessions Pt 2” and particularly “Throwback” (arguably the best ballad on the album) being extremely soulful and well sung. As evidenced by the albums title, its loose concept is one of a man confessing all the wrongs in his life. The albums made up in majority of slower, confessional tunes. Some tracks, like “Caught Up” and “Bad Girl” are still dance tunes, but are much less gritty and bring up fewer images of bad club lighting. In an intelligent move, it’s the only club banger on the album. ‘lil Jon’s shining moment as a producer, “Yeah!” combines an infectious beat with one of the simplest hooks ever imagined (…yeah) with the genius of Ludacris to form a song only matched by “Hot in Herre” as a club hit. Everyone’s heard “Yeah~” the giant club hit from the summer of ‘04. So, I checked out all of Confessions, and what I found was an excellent collection of singles (and would be singles), surrounded by some decent filler material. The lyrical matter was pretty average (I mean, another break up song? No way!), but Usher had a way about singing it that gave it an added sense of emotion, that someone like Ne-Yo just couldn’t do. What I found was a tightly produced, well performed song that had some of the best hooks I’ve heard since I last listened to Justin Timberlake so many months ago. Having to download “Burn” to put on a mix I was being forced to make for her, I decided to take a listen. I, of course, was forced into listening to the album by a rather close female friend. Sometimes a guy will come in (who is white) and seal up the genre with massive successes, and make it virtually impossible for anyone else to get any attention. Sure, there’ll be a good tune once in a while, but for the most part the genre in the mainstream is stale. I usually turn off the radio if I hear Robin Thicke or any of those guys, as I just can’t stand to hear the same song over again. If only it were 10 minutes shorter.Ĭontemporary R&B is not one of my strong points (not that much is, but I digress…). It feels like fresh heartbreak every single time.Review Summary: "Confessions" is a great album, mainly supported by its singles but still noteworthy without them. Yet in the end, Swift can't resist begging him for reassurance that she wasn't hallucinating their connection, that she wasn't the only one maimed. She takes up space in spite of his power over her. As she unravels her memories with painstaking precision, Swift insists ever more forcefully upon the power of her own perspective - "I was there, I remember it all too well" - in the face of her ex's manipulations. The extra length provides more context and encourages total immersion. In 2021, Swift cemented the song's legacy by releasing the fabled 10-minute version, which landed atop Insider's list of the year's best songs, as well as Variety's. "All Too Well" has long been considered the centerpiece of Swift's career, which says a lot for a catalog that's stuffed with bite-sized sagas of love and loss, so rich and earnest they make your teeth hurt. Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images "All Too Well" was originally released in 2012 and rereleased in 2021. If most breakup songs are like sitcom episodes, "Cry Me a River" is the vengeance plot on a soap opera. While that hardly sounds like a winning formula, "Cry Me a River" succeeds precisely because it's not bound by common laws of etiquette and chill. Gerwig was 19 when "Cry Me a River" was released, just a few years younger than Timberlake was when the song was written - or, more accurately, when it came spilling out after a heated phone call with his then-girlfriend.Īs producer Timbaland recounted in 2011: "I was like, 'Man, don't worry about it,' and he was like, 'I can't believe she did that to me' and he was like, 'You were my sun, you were my earth.'"Īgainst all odds, Timbaland makes Timberlake's angst and spite sound impossibly stylish, draping his famous falsetto with streaks of rain, layers of beatboxing, and Gregorian chants. When Greta Gerwig wrote Justin Timberlake a letter to ask if she could use "Cry Me a River" in her directorial debut "Lady Bird," she aptly described the track as "sultry and sullen and infectious - what 'Gimme Shelter' must have felt like to the kids of the late '60s." Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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