His maturity grew even further on 8701, his third album. On his sophomore breakthrough album, My Way, released when he was 18, the singer began to mature, with songs progressing from the handholding of his debut’s “Think of You” to the new bedroom antics of “Nice & Slow.” By the end of this 17-track triumph, even the most buttoned-up listener can’t help but understand the true message of the record: A mistake is only as grave as we make it.īursting onto the music scene at only 16 years old with his self-titled debut album, Usher was primed to win the swooning hearts of teen girls everywhere.
With a lesser artist, this may be impossible for the listener, but Usher’s charms are unfailing. Here, Usher asks us to sympathize with the philanderer, the heartbreaker. But that is also what makes Confessions such a compelling record.īridging musical genres and stylistic eras (through both subject matter and production style), Confessions is an album set apart, and a masterpiece of tone and sound. It is uncomfortable subject matter for a listener more inclined to revel in the syrupy R&B of the past. For it is on this record that Usher uses a confession of infidelity - and subsequent pregnancy - to traverse the moral and emotional landscape of contemporary romance.
On Usher’s fourth and unquestionably best studio album, the R&B singer sets the tone of the record before a word is ever spoken on his “Intro,” inviting the listener into an hour-long journey of vulnerability, joy, heartbreak and, somehow, redemption.