The Singles Jukebox

It’s not Billy Connolly, but it’ll do…

[Website]
[5.14]

Anthony Easton: Weirdly intimate details that are more confessional than a James Taylor song abuts with a kind of generic sadness… almost like he thought better about leaking too much gossip. Could have been interesting with more information.
[4]

Martin Kavka: Usher has said that every bit of music on his album comes from a personal place. But if you’re pouring your heart out to your fans after your divorce, why would you do it with boilerplate I-tried-I-really-did lyrics that give the listener no hint as to why the relationship went south? And if it’s all about you, why would you allow your producer to recycle a track he had used eight months earlier (Gorilla Zoe’s “So Sick”)? It all just screams of image calculation. This isn’t a bad thing, but hypocritical claims of realness are shameful.
[0]

Al Shipley: I always thought that the ‘controversial’ backstory behind Confessions and its title track seemed a little manufactured, and probably got too much credit for the blockbuster sales that “Yeah!” really brought in. So even though Usher might technically be using the same confessional template, he’s being more boldly and verifiably autobiographical than before, so frank about the tawdry tabloid tale his life’s become in the last couple years that it’s actually kind of disarming. “For you I gave my heart and turned my back against the world” is the moment where the hurt and resignation become too convincing and real to brush this off as a meta publicity stunt.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: I feel for him on this one, because he’s clearly trying to take the next step toward real maturity: voice deeper, lyrics more responsible. But he sounds self-conscious about it still; “turn[ing] into the man I never thought I’d be” is a great topic but not one he explores fully enough. Maybe Ne-Yo should step in.
[6]

Alfred Soto: I can’t think of another singer who can redeem a scenario this bathetic — not only did he lose his mama, but he’s become a Sally Jesse Raphael worthy show guest forced to sign a few nettlesome documents. But Usher’s anguished vocals and his way of hurrying past certain key admissions of loutishness make it clear that he still loves her.
[7]

Chuck Eddy: In 1981, Richard “Dimples” Fields had an r&b radio hit with a great song called “She’s Got Papers On Me,” in which he yearned for the other woman but Betty Wright kept interrupting to remind him who he was contractually obligated to. Barbara Mason followed it up with a mistress’s answer song called “She’s Got The Papers (But I Got The Man).” Usher, who should probably take a lesson from all that, does not have such cool friends. He also does not have Dimples’s voice.
[3]

John Seroff: The jittery, high-pitched burble of declining melody sets the scene for a nervous, regret-filled breakup told unconventionally without accusation, rancor or cockiness. “Papers” is in the same classic “tortured decision” style that Usher has trafficked in from jump but it’s been some time since I’ve heard him sound so driven and present. I’m a little psyched by the possibility that Raymond vs. Raymond could be Usher’s Here, My Dear; some strife might prove the right grist to get the mill turning again. In any case, “Papers” is smart and strong enough to merit a worthy addition to his career best-of and should certainly pack enough oomph to get Usher back on the charts.
[8]

Anthony Miccio: Returning to human-scale romantic drama is commercially astute after the failure of Here I Stand‘s emotional gigantism, but this bitchy divorce ballad lacks the smolder that made “Burn” and “Confessions Pt. 2” more than the sniveling of a privileged manchild (plus those dinky keyboard fills work like auditory salt peter). Usher gives great histrionic, but one Jon Gosselin is more than enough.
[6]