The Best Song on Usher's New Album, A, Is...
First, a necessary disclaimer: After the impending climate change-induced dystopian hellscape arrives, when Usher fans are looking back on his discography—because, honestly, what else are they going to do?—his new surprise eight-track album A is not going to be remembered quite as fondly as My Way, 8701, or Confessions. Released at midnight on Friday, A is a full-on embrace of trap music, in part thanks to Usher's collaboration with Atlanta producer Zaytoven. As the album title alludes to, this is an Atlanta-centric project through and through, complete with features by Future on "Stay At Home" and Gunna on "Gift Shop." Zaytoven even gets equal billing alongside Usher on the album's track list on Spotify. Big day for producers! A was also apparently created and sent out into the world in less than a week, as noted in Apple Music's description of the album:
"If you didn't know there was new Usher music coming, don't feel bad—these songs didn't exist mere days before this release. Writing and recording in Atlanta, he and producer Zaytoven knocked out eight songs during a five-day sprint."
R&B aficionados pining for old-school Usher can't totally pin his recent trap leanings on Zaytoven—the singer's been zagging this way for a while, especially on 2016's Hard II Love. If you're looking for something that even remotely resembles his 2004 catalogue, skip straight to "Say What U Want" and don't listen to anything else here. It utilizes a real-life actual piano and sports Usher crooning in more than a couple of octaves. But if you're willing to give the 40-year-old birthday boy's attempt at Appealing to the Youths a shot, the best song on the album is, coincidentally enough... also about birthdays.
"Birthday" helps Usher cross off an unwritten requirement of rappers and R&B singers: releasing a sometimes sexy, sometimes very-much-not song that celebrates you, dear listener, turning another year older. Up until Friday, Usher had been usurped many times over by Destiny's Child ("Birthday"), Twista ("Birthday"), 2 Chainz ("Birthday Song"), Drake ("Ratchet Happy Birthday"), Childish Major feat. SZA and Isaiah Rashad ("Happy Birthday"), Rihanna ("Birthday Cake"), and most famously, Jeremih ("Birthday Sex"). Better late than never, Usher.
"Birthday" falls into the very-much-not sexy camp. Taking a page from Drake's "Nice for What," Usher's target audience for "Birthday" is women, whom he encourages to "do your dance" and "spend a band if you're worth it." He adds, "Go girl, it's your world" to the chorus, to really hammer the positivity point home.
The sample floating around as background noise, Kelly Rowland and Nelly's "Dilemma," (which, as a second degree of separation, was originally sampling Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need, and Want You") gives "Birthday" a boost of always-welcome early 2000s nostalgia. It's a fun, unintentionally cheesy jam with an equally unintentionally hilarious turn at the 2:30 mark, when Usher goes all-in on making this as inclusive as possible:
"Your girl got a birthday, yeah / Your sister got a birthday, yeah / Your niece got a birthday, yeah / Your auntie got a birthday, yeah / Your mama got a birthday, yeah / Your baby mama got a birthday, yeah / Your daughter got a birthday, yeah."
All of these people do, in fact, have a birthday. Usher's best days might be behind him, and A is a generally underwhelming effort, but "Birthday" is something you would totally dance to at a friend's birthday party on a crowded dance floor after a couple of drinks. So, with that admittedly low bar in mind, mission accomplished.
