Usher: Looking 4 Myself – review

Usher Raymond IV has carved out a megastar career not by innovating, but by seizing on dominant trends and delivering them more charismatically than anyone else. Looking 4 Myself finds him trying to grab a slice of every cake going: Eurotrash trance (Euphoria), hipster-friendly synth clouds (Climax, What Happened To U), grumbling dubstep drops (I Care For U, Can't Stop Won't Stop), the Neptunes used, amusingly, for a retro period piece (Twisted). Veering senselessly from genre to genre, the strategy is less coherent album, more disparate pick'n'mix – the same approach as Nicki Minaj's similarly scattershot Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, and one that undeniably makes sense in an iTunes/Spotify age. Like Minaj, Usher succeeds on his own terms. Looking 4 Myself is bloated and self-conscious, but when it hits the spot it's a feast of detailed, brilliantly gleaming R&B. Usher's vocals are in fine fettle – his falsetto lends his tortured paramour poses a degree of depth, while Lessons for the Lover finds him harmonising with himself to astounding effect. Most interesting is when the album goes in directions that don't cleave to obvious aesthetics: the swampy blues bassline and rattling percussion of Sins of My Father, the classical violin sample threading through bumping 808 bass on IFU, adding a touch of courtliness to Usher's lascivious come-ons.