So what’s next for a man freed from the bonds of matrimony? Well, fucking, for one thing, and lots of it. If anything, it’s an anti-apology for having resumed business as usual after the wedding vows: “So what the hell am I gon’ do?/Turn my life around?/It ain’t goin’ down/She knew about the life that I live/Why’s she cryin’ now?” And, despite its title, “Guilty” is no confessional. Amid the digital squiggles of “Papers”, he sounds eager to just get the whole divorce thing over with. It’s impossible to know where the line that separates truth from self-aggrandizement lies, but as he portrays himself on these songs, Usher is unrepentant. There are, in fact, two Ushers on the cover (well, two half-Ushers, at any rate), and the booklet photos show Raymond cavorting with children and praying in a church on one hand, and posing disaffectedly with a topless model on the other. The new disc’s artwork, on the other hand, suggests that the title Raymond v. In between his last record and his latest one, the 31-year-old R&B superstar filed for divorce from Tameka Foster, the mother of his two boys. If you’re wondering how that all turned out, look no further than the title of Usher’s just-released sixth studio album. In 2008, the newly married singer released Here I Stand, touted as his first truly grown-up soul record, on which he purportedly bade farewell to life as a skirt-chaser and embraced his new roles as husband and father. Usher Raymond IV clearly has no qualms about using his personal life as fodder for his songs.
0 kommentar(er)
