Tracklist Hide Credits
| 1 |
Intro-Lude 8701
Co-producer – Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Mixed By – Pat Viala |
0:45 | ||
| 2 |
U Remind Me
Mixed By – Kevin Davis Producer – Edmund Clement |
4:27 | ||
| 3 |
I Don't Know
Featuring – P. Diddy Mixed By – DURO Producer – Neptunes, The |
4:27 | ||
| 4 | Twork It Out | 4:58 | ||
| 5 | U Got It Bad | 4:13 | ||
| 6 |
Pop Ya Collar
Mixed By – Kevin Davis Producer – Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs |
3:39 | ||
| 7 |
If I Want To
Backing Vocals – Sherree Ford-Payne Producer – Babyface |
3:53 | ||
| 8 |
I Can't Let U Go
Backing Vocals – Jermaine Dupri |
3:35 | ||
| 9 |
U Don't Have To Call
Backing Vocals – Kelis Mixed By – DURO Producer – Neptunes, The |
4:42 | ||
| 10 |
Without U (Interlude)
Co-producer – Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Mixed By – Pat Viala |
0:56 | ||
| 11 | Can U Help Me | 5:51 | ||
| 12 |
How Do I Say
Backing Vocals – Bria Fuentes Co-producer – James "Big Jim" Wright |
6:23 | ||
| 13 |
Hottest Thing
Backing Vocals – Tajuanna Ford Producer – Mike City |
3:50 | ||
| 14 | Good Ol' Ghetto | 4:01 | ||
| 15 |
U-Turn
Backing Vocals – Jermaine Dupri |
3:12 | ||
| 16 | T.T.P. | 3:38 | ||
| 17 |
Separated
Producer – Cedric Moore, Daron Jones |
4:24 |
Credits
- Co-producer – Bryan-Michael Cox (tracks: 5, 7, 8, 14 to 16)
- Mixed By – Jermaine Dupri (tracks: 5, 7, 8, 14 to 16), Phil Tan (tracks: 5, 7, 8, 13 to 16), Steve Hodge (tracks: 4, 11, 12, 17)
- Producer – Jermaine Dupri (tracks: 5, 7, 8, 14 to 16), Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (tracks: 2, 4, 11, 12, 17)
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[r413829]
There are a few songs on here everybody and their grandmother can sing along to: The album has two Grammy-winning songs in the cathagory best male R&B performance: "U Make Me Wanna" and "U Don't Have to Call". They're both great midtempo R&B with instantly hooking hooks. They're truly era defining songs, especially the Neptunes produced latter. The soaring ballad "U Got It Bad" (are you starting to notice a running gag?) is also quite impressive with it's softrock guitar solo.
The harder dance numbers are also well executed with "I Don't Know" as a definite highlight. Most of these songs have aged well enough. Sure they are dated in that you can hear they weren't made recently but that says more about the shitstorm that is R&B in 2010.
All the songs after "U Don't Have To Call" are utterly undistinctive but they won't fuck up anybody's mojo playing as background music in the bedroom (When the fuck else are you going to listen to this album in it's entirety?) so they get a pass.
Usher hits all the right notes and doesn't engage in useless melisma like so many R&B singers of the late '90s and early 2000s which is MUCH appreciated. The production is likewise on point. So technically this album would be a perfect ten, yet it isn't. For one this album is very little original. All of this has been sung and performed before (Occationally better, though not very often.) Secondly the character Usher puts doen on this album is very one-dimentional and bland. Never does he show any flaws. He's always the perfect lover (which is somewhat laughable considering what Karrine "Superhead" Steffans wrote on Ush in her book about having sex with everybody in urban music) and he never shows any flaws. If he'd thrown in a little more variation and/ or cut some of the weaker jams he would have created another textbook classic example of how to make an R&B album and do it right. As it is it's just really good.
Rating: 7 outta 10
Best songs: "U Remind Me", "U Got It Bad", "Pop Ya Collar" (only included on European editions of the album), "Twork It Out", "U Don't Have to Call"