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Monday, June 2, 2008

Usher Closing In On No. 1 Album Debut

Usher's "Here I Stand" (LaFace/Zomba) continues to charge its way towards a No. 1 debut on next week's Billboard 200 album chart, as it will once again lead Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart when it is released later today (May 30).

Unweighted sales of "Stand" through the close of business Thursday (May 29) were 267,000. Depending on weekend sales, Usher has a chance to meet or possibly exceed the year's best sales week -- when Mariah Carey's "E=MC2" (Island) bowed with 463,000 in April.

The week of "E=MC2's" release, the album sang out with 295,000 on that week's Friday Building chart.

On the day of "Here I Stand's" release, Usher visited both MTV's "TRL" and BET's "106 & Park," while today he played "Good Morning America."

Billboard estimates the nine merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Circuit City, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target, Anderson Merchandisers and Handleman Co. -- comprise about 80% of all U.S. album sales.

Here I Stand - Usher

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Based on the first single "Love In This Club", I thought this Usher release was going to be great and exciting. After listening to the entire CD, this was, for me, a rather weak release. My problems with it are mainly that it lacks spirit and variety, all the songs at first listening pretty much sounding similar and few chances being taken to show that Usher's grown as an artist. Another problem is that Usher seems to have suffered the same fate that many married artists do; the songs seem to be written about his relationship or he's attempting to debunk the rumors of the media and tabloids through song. For me, it didn't work.

What I did like were those songs like "Love In This Club" on the album that really stand out and have feeling matched with great production value. "Moving Mountains" and "His Mistakes" both speak of being burned by love and having a few missteps in a relationship. These songs give you chills and manage to make you a bit misty and teary eyed with how relatable they are. I also enjoyed "Trading Places" which is about sex but sets up a curious and playful situation lyrically with some great vocal work. "Love in this Club, Part II" is also fun simply because it features Beyoncé and is a total reworking of the song. The Lil Wayne part of the song is weak, but still, I appreciate that for once instead of just having two artist singing over the regular track, someone took the time to totally revamp the song and the feel of it.

Then, the other songs fall flat. The production value isn't great, making some of the songs sound as if they are mix tape quality and in need of more mixing. Usher goes on to sing about women and sex, his two main subject matters, but at this point in his career they simply sound tired and overdone. The other songs on the CD compete with one another due to the sound and lack of excitement put into it. It makes me wonder if some of these songs were rushed through and shows you that an abundance of songs on a cd isn't always a necessarily good thing. It loses my attention and many of these track have 'b-side' quality to them making them fluff and skip-worthy.

In all, let down by this release and feel it was or has been over-hyped and weak. Not worth the money or attention put into it.