By Leah Greenblatt
B+

Like Barry White, Jodeci, and R. Kelly before him, R&B superstar Usher is the master of a very specific milieu: music for — and about — making babies. And it has certainly served him well. Since the now 29-year-old first emerged as a precocious, buttery-smooth lothario in the mid-’90s, he’s brought home five Grammys, racked up a dozen top 10 singles, and sold more than 25 million records. So what happens when one of the biggest sex symbols in the business, who last dominated the charts with 2004’s Confessions, actually settles down and makes his own? (A baby, that is.)

The newly married dad — son Usher Raymond V was born last November — is both different and entirely the same on his fifth album, Here I Stand. One moment, he’s celebrating fatherhood with ”Prayer for You” (”You carry my name/And I pray that you’re better than me”) as his little boy gurgles in the background, or he’s reciting earnest paeans to monogamy (”Before I Met You,” ”Something Special”). The next, Usher’s groin-thrusting his way through salacious bedroom grooves like ”Trading Places” and ”This Ain’t Sex.” Indeed, the already massive single ”Love in This Club” is about as libidinous as he’s ever been: ”Let’s both get undressed right here/Keep it up girl, I swear/I’ma give it to you nonstop/And I don’t care/Who’s watchin’,” he croons over producer Polow Da Don’s shuddering, sex-drenched synths. Well then, Mr. Naughty!
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Sounds like Usher’s long-awaited follow-up to his multi-Grammy-winning 2004 “Confessions” CD will be an even more intimate look into the superstar singer’s life. “It’s very personal. Usher is in a completely different place than where he was on the last record. He’s married now. He’s a father. He’s definitely matured, and I think you’re going to hear that through the music,” reports Iz Avila, half of the Grammy-winning producing team The Avila Brothers, who masterminded several tunes on “Confessions” with his brother/partner Bobby Avila.

The new album, due May 27, is titled “Here I Stand.” “People keep asking, ‘Is it better than ‘Confessions’? It’s a great record overall,” says Iz “He’s taking the listeners on the adventure with him.” The brothers produced the tune “Play Me” on the new Usher album. Meanwhile, Iz and Bobby — who’ve worked with such heavy hitters as Mary J. Blige, Gwen Stefani, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey and Missy Elliott, most recently winning two Grammys for Chaka Khan’s “Funk This” — continue to keep all burners going at once.
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By Charreah Jackson
Let’s face it: Usher probably will never know what it means to have a dream deferred. Since he was a pubescent teen, the ATL crooner has only been steeped in reality — singing and dancing toward his goals seemingly effortlessly. Now, after an award-winning career and four-year hiatus, the megastar and family man gears up for his fifth musical offering, Here I Stand, the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2004’s kiss-and-tell breakout Confessions.

“I’m back on the scene and ready to do it all over again. This is going to be an incredible journey,” the chart-topper prophesizes. “It is a classic and should be remembered 20 years from now. I’m ready to shock the world.”

Yet, his loyalists were not at all surprised to learn that the pop phenom’s bounce-heavy, party starter “Love In This Club” featuring Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy had a rapid-fire ascension on Billboard’s music charts. Still as his energy surges with talks of his latest project, the anticipation hardly the cause of this first-time dad’s adrenalin rush. He’s as busy as the fancy footwork he serves up on the dance floor, infiltrating the silver screen (In The Mix, She’s All That, Light It Up), The Great White Way (Chicago), the basketball court (he’s co-owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers) and as a philanthropist (and founder of New Look Organization, an Atlanta-based nonprofit which provides youth with a new outlook on life through education and real-world experience). But lately nothing has kept him more engaged than fatherhood and his family.

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UBG | Over the course of his career Usher has sold close to 26 million albums worldwide and won numerous awards. As an intimate body of work, Usher’s last studio album Confessions, took fans on his journey through romantic relationships, making commitments, breaking them and dealing with the consequences of his decisions. Here I Stand in stores May 27th, raises the stakes and is the next chapter in this ongoing story of Usher’s coming of age.

Here I Stand tells a story of growth; triumphant, reflective, somewhat defiant, and marks a new period in Usher’s life and creative expression. Through his music, Usher illustrates the tension and challenges of balancing a very public life with private decisions; of being a sex symbol and entertainer with being a faithful husband and father. Here I Stand finds Usher working with some of the best producers and writers around, including Polow Da Don, who produced the first hit single Love In This Club, Jermaine Dupri, Dre & Vidal and Dream & Tricky Stewart.

Although the market has changed dramatically since Usher’s last release, there is a massive anticipation for his return, demonstrated by the groundbreaking one week jump of Love In This Club from #51 to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (see story below). The follow up single Moving Mountains, provides an opportunity for multiple format single success across pop, rhythm and urban radio.

Usher once again is ready to take top spot & give his fans what he has been giving them from day one, great music!

Now if you notice that I CAN’T WIN, Lights, Camera, Action, At The Time, Dat Girl Right There, The Realest, and Angel are not on this tracklisting. So they may have been scrapped, or maybe even held for a future re-release! Let’s wait and see what happens. Also UsherForever.com posted that Plies is on the remix instead of Lil’ Wayne.

Tentative Tracklisting (subject to change)
[Credit to UBG]
1. Intro
2. Love In This Club featuring Young Jeezy
3. This Ain’t Sex
4. Trading Places
5. Moving Mountains
6. What’s Your Name featuring will.i.am
7. Prayer For You Interlude
8. Something Special
9. Love You Gently
10. Best Thing featuring Jay Z
11. Before I Met You
12. His Mistakes
13. Appetite
14. What’s A Man To Do
15. Lifetime
16. Love In This Club Part II Usher featuring Beyoncé & Lil Wayne
17. Here I Stand