Music Album: Looking For Myself by Usher

After the success of his 2010 album, Raymond Vs Raymond, which returned Usher to musical prominence. He follows up with his eclectic new album titled Looking For Myself. In his words, Usher says he wanted to show how much he has evolved as an artist because in the music industry of today, you either evolve or evaporate and he has made the conscious decision to do the former. Despite the ugly custody battle he is dealing with at the moment, he still manages to deliver an amazing album.

In my opinion, this album picks up where Raymond Vs Raymond left off because Usher continues to experiment with the euro-pop sound that has taken over mainstream music, to some extent a few of the songs follow the same musical direction of some songs on his 2010 album and his subsequent 2011 EP. Can't Stop, Won't Stop produced by Will.I.Am sounds like their previous collaboration OMG, the albums first pop single Scream sounds like an extended version of DJ Got Us Falling In Love, while Dive contains the same musical arrangement as There Goes My Baby. However, despite the sound repitition, the album still produces some fantastic cuts, Climax shows off the direction that r&b music needs to go in order for it to return to mainstream adoration, Lemme See (Featuring Rick Ross) is the perfection fusion of r&b and hip hop since Ja Rule and Ashanti's or Jay-Z and Beyonce's numerous duets. What Happened to You, I Care For You and the dance-inspired Euphoria produced by Swedish House Mafia also add substance to this album.

The highlight of this album is Lessons of the Lover, a cutting edge, seductive r&b track produced by Rico Love sees Usher sing about how turmoils in a relationship allow for excellent love making - the track shows that when it comes to making r&b music, Usher would always be one of the best. This album is on the same level as his last one, great music and great evolution, no matter what type of sound he is experimenting with, he still manages to deliver vocals that are pretty much r&b but have the spice to crossover to pop and dance genres, this album is pretty enjoyable and only continues to show that when it comes to making hit songs, Usher is still a pioneer.