Date: May 22, 2004
Weeks: 8
It's kind of remarkable that Usher's "Yeah" (#902) was on top of the charts for 12 weeks, and it took another Usher song to replace it. I'm not entirely surprised. "Yeah" was a great song. This song... maybe not so much.
The problem with this song is that there's not a lot of sound to it. The music is very thin, and perfunctory. It's like they were trying to avoid obscuring Usher's voice, but couldn't commit to a soft sound that would complement the vocals. The result is some hard bass and light guitar, with a bunch of extra random noises interspersed throughout. It's also really out of place for its era. I would expect to hear a song like this in the early 90s, not in 2004. They were trying to let the vocals stand out, and I feel like they missed the mark a bit.
And the vocals aren't very good, either. Don't get me wrong, Usher has a great voice. But he makes some choices in this song that don't work for me. He starts doing one of those low-register speaking parts, then he sings a very pleasing half verse in his usual range, then he jumps up to a falsetto range, I guess because he's trying to sound more emotional. But it lasts too long, and it gets unpleasant to listen to. He hits falsetto again in the chorus, and that works better because it's shorter. And then in the bridge he sings "woo-hoo" in this falsetto while the music does almost nothing, and the result is a really uninteresting bridge where nothing happens. I also want to make a comment that I think there's too much backup singing. I don't mind the thing where Usher sings the song straight while also singing a more elaborately spontaneous track on top of it. But occasionally throughout there are these stings of backup singing added that just feel overproduced. And that overproduction really harms the raw feeling the song is aiming for.
The lyrics fare a bit better. I'm not sure I've heard another song with quite this sentiment. It's about breaking up with someone, and then maybe wondering whether you've made the right choice. I think I've reviewed a couple songs where somebody breaks up with somebody else and tries to get back together, including perspectives from both the dumper and the dumpee. But what makes this song stand out is that Usher remains ambivalent about the breakup. "One side of me is telling me that I need to move on, on the other side I want to break down and cry." It's an exploration of the regret of a breakup, but it's not necessarily a "let's get back together" song. That's not something I've really heard before. "Gotta let it burn" kind of cleverly refers to the fact that this hurts, but he has to let it hurt to get better. Unfortunately, the lyrics are kind of undermined by the inclusion of some unnecessary slang that really comes off silly. "Get my shorty back" is awkward, and the especially bad is the attention given to the line "without my boo." I'm not opposed to slang in songs, but slang undermines sincerity in a heartfelt, soft, relationship song.
My verdict: Don't like it. It's not bad, but it's not well put together. I think maybe if there had been some different musical choices, this song could have been saved. But the music doesn't work, and the song's other flaws drag it down.
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