Aside from his rippling abs, I had never been a huge fan of Usher. While a few of his songs adorn my iTunes, they mostly arrived there in preparation for various parties where the music was best left at an uber-mainstream level to satisfy everyone. While i totally understand why many others have fallen under his spell, for some reason, the guy just gave me that ick feeling. Maybe it's his self-admitted man-whorishness. But mostly it's that I never found his songs catchy. This all changed though in 2004, when his Confessions album exploded and proved to have not just a song or two, but an entire album of infectious ditties. I thought that maybe the tide had turned in my opinion of Usher.
Then along came his single, "Love in this Club", off his latest album, and the first time I heard it, I felt myself slinking back into the "meh" feeling I'd always had about Usher. But after at least 100 listens, I've changed my mind. Why? After the jump!
Well first off, ANY song may start to sound catchy on the 100th listen. I get that, but it's not always the case, hence why my ears still bleed every time I hear anything by Creed.
What made me hate it in the first place? As the lead single from his new album, I was expecting "Love", especially from the title, to be another blazing club banger in the vein of his 2004 uber-hit "Yeah!". No cigar there. I could hardly find myself tapping a shoe in a pub to this song, let alone instigating a badly choreographed drunken dance-off among friends (yes, we're just that cool). Simply put, this mid-tempo tune was a disappointment.
Secondly, the video made me seethe with its outright pimping of Usher's friends. P. Diddy, Keri Hilson, Kanye West, and others are prominently featured in the video, doing nothing more than looking pretty, in an otherwise uninspired video. Maybe that's needed in a video for an up-and-coming star in order to get their video noticed, but Usher? Not so much. Video name-dropping your friends does not an exciting video make.
So what made me change my mind? Actually, it wasn't Usher at all, but mixmaster Girl Talk's new samplelicious album, Feed the Animals. Somehow, hearing "Love" blended seamlessly with Megadeath and The Cure made me appreciate those midtempo synth beats more than I ever did when it was just usher singing along to them. Suddenly, I found myself bopping along and then inexplicably saddened when Young Jeezy got cut off in favor of a sample of Soulja Boy (ugh). Next thing you know, I'm scrolling through my iPod to listen to the song in its entirety. And then it rained frogs. Y'know, stranger things have happened.
So maybe it wasn't Usher who had anything to do with it, and the cred should go to Girl Talk and his masterful sampling abilities. Regardless, it made me a fan of Usher's latest. And judging by how his latest single, "Moving Mountains" is going nowhere just as fast as the new album's disappointing sales (for Usher, that is), I guess the perennial ladies man should take the fans where he can get'em.
How about you readers. Ever have a song that you hated initially but ended up caving on and thus, loving a few months (and 100 listens) down the road? Post'em in the comments!
Then along came his single, "Love in this Club", off his latest album, and the first time I heard it, I felt myself slinking back into the "meh" feeling I'd always had about Usher. But after at least 100 listens, I've changed my mind. Why? After the jump!
Well first off, ANY song may start to sound catchy on the 100th listen. I get that, but it's not always the case, hence why my ears still bleed every time I hear anything by Creed.
What made me hate it in the first place? As the lead single from his new album, I was expecting "Love", especially from the title, to be another blazing club banger in the vein of his 2004 uber-hit "Yeah!". No cigar there. I could hardly find myself tapping a shoe in a pub to this song, let alone instigating a badly choreographed drunken dance-off among friends (yes, we're just that cool). Simply put, this mid-tempo tune was a disappointment.
Secondly, the video made me seethe with its outright pimping of Usher's friends. P. Diddy, Keri Hilson, Kanye West, and others are prominently featured in the video, doing nothing more than looking pretty, in an otherwise uninspired video. Maybe that's needed in a video for an up-and-coming star in order to get their video noticed, but Usher? Not so much. Video name-dropping your friends does not an exciting video make.
So what made me change my mind? Actually, it wasn't Usher at all, but mixmaster Girl Talk's new samplelicious album, Feed the Animals. Somehow, hearing "Love" blended seamlessly with Megadeath and The Cure made me appreciate those midtempo synth beats more than I ever did when it was just usher singing along to them. Suddenly, I found myself bopping along and then inexplicably saddened when Young Jeezy got cut off in favor of a sample of Soulja Boy (ugh). Next thing you know, I'm scrolling through my iPod to listen to the song in its entirety. And then it rained frogs. Y'know, stranger things have happened.
So maybe it wasn't Usher who had anything to do with it, and the cred should go to Girl Talk and his masterful sampling abilities. Regardless, it made me a fan of Usher's latest. And judging by how his latest single, "Moving Mountains" is going nowhere just as fast as the new album's disappointing sales (for Usher, that is), I guess the perennial ladies man should take the fans where he can get'em.
How about you readers. Ever have a song that you hated initially but ended up caving on and thus, loving a few months (and 100 listens) down the road? Post'em in the comments!
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