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Here I Stand - Usher
  • Band Name: Usher
  • Record Label: Jive
  • Release Date: May 27, 2008
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 1 out of 15
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    At nearly 70 minutes, the disc could certainly have used a stronger editing hand, and even in his newly revelatory state, Usher remains more a smooth entertainer than an astute lyricist. Still, a good portion of Stand's tunes deserve a place in the dance-floor pantheon--and, yes, in the bedroom, too.
  2. All Music Guide
    80
    Here I Stand is almost exactly the kind of release you'd expect a 29-year-old Usher to deliver in 2008, and while it is seriously doubtful the album will move more copies than the nearly diamond platinum "Confessions," there is plenty to like about it.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    75
    The album would be much better without its excess of undistinguished ballads, but that aside, it's a more accomplished version of "Confessions," the hooks more effortless, the singing even better, the songwriting more consistent.
  4. The A.V. Club
    75
    He sounds much more convincing on syrupy ballads like the Dre and Vidal-produced title track, which lyrically and musically sounds more passionate and more adult than Usher ever has.
  5. Billboard
    70
    After a four-year break, Usher's fifth set is bursting with grown man, true-to-life tales like leaving his player ways behind ("Before I Met You"), falling in love ("Something Special," "Lifetime" and the title track), making love ("This Ain't Sex") and having a child.
  6. The New York Times
    70
    But tension, not bliss, creates the album's best songs.
  7. Boston Globe
    70
    The honesty on display in the songwriting and the deft, diverse production are both startling and satisfying.
  8. Blender
    60
    Usher has called Here I Stand his "grown and sexy" album, and he's half right. Apart from a couple of A­up-tempo tracks by Danjahandz ("Appetite") and Scandinavians-of-the-moment Stargate ("What's a Man to Do"), the production is cocktail-lounge crunk, full of splashy cymbals, jazzy electric guitar and tinkly pianos.
  9. Hot Press
    60
    R'n'B lothario sings the praises of monogamy on patchy fifth album.
  10. Village Voice
    60
    A little too sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay for Chris Breezy–trained earbuds, perhaps, Here I Stand is pure grown-man bidness.
  11. Hartford Courant
    60
    As it is, it merely stands him in good stead amongst the many contenders for his throne.
  12. Dot Music
    50
    So smooth nothing sticks, there's no guts, no depth and no matter how much he protests to the contrary, nothing to believe.
  13. Rolling Stone
    50
    Now that he's got the American Dream, he sounds like he's stopped trying.
  14. Slant Magazine
    50
    Usher always delivers musically, but his perpetual claims of excellence and of being on the "cutting edge" (though it's unclear by whose definition and compared to what), his music is almost always just one notch above mediocrity.
  15. Observer Music Monthly
    20
    Last year he made the magnificent 'Dat Girl Right There', only to omit it in favour of the gloop he wades through on this.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 3 out of 9
  1. IanL.
    1
    After 4 years since he released his last album, Confessions, Usher has returned to the music biz to make sure we all know he's still alive and kickin'. Er, rather, standing. In front of cars at some kind of... carnival. Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr. biography references aside, in his new album, Here I Stand, Usher comes back and lays down a handful of tracks that really expose himself as a person with a soul and conscious thought. He provides social commentary, and discusses real life issues that are often sideswiped by popular media. He really put a great amount of effort into this album to make sure that people know that his songs are not just for entertainment, or background music while you are lovin' up your lady, but rather a medium for philosophical thought and social criticism. He follows in the footsteps of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Or not. No, he doesn't do this, sadly, despite having a perfect opportunity for it. Nope, it's 18 (21 if you pay more on iTunes) more songs about how to love your woman, or not love your woman. Thanks Usher, the music scene hasn't got a lot of those songs in a while. Is this to say that there shouldn't be songs that talk about the hardships of love? of loss? or on the contrary: the joy of love? No, I'm not saying that. But 18 on the same album? Ugh. It seems all his songs could be easily mistaken for another, and are just a result of a Teddy Pendergrass themed Madlibs gone wrong; that one day, Usher got drunk and wrote a 10 page long paragraph about how he felt about having sex, and a producer said "I'll get the scissors and rhyming dictionary." It wouldn't be so bad if his love songs were a little in-depth, and provided some sort of specificity, but instead we get songs about how love is like "moving mountains." I'm sure it took him the whole 4 years to come up with that one. Okay I'm being harsh. There are 2 songs that are not love songs. Sadly, it is the intro, and an interlude. The intro talks about he walks alone in life (or... at least he walks...) and the interlude is about how he's going to protect his son. It's almost as if he tried to have some variety in his songs and some higher-up said "Songs not about having sex? Get the hell out of my studio, this isn't Motown. Do I look like Barry Gordy?" but still managed to bargain these 2 tracks into the album. Though apparently it wasn't enough, as the intro doesn't even have an ending. Well, we have these songs... What are we gonna do? Are they at least good? Plain and simple, no. He jumps on the recent hip hop bandwagon of using techno instruments in their songs, at the cost of any sort of musical foundation. Don't go into this expecting to hear anything worthy of being called RnB. Instead, you get songs that sound like they were made in some guy's bedroom using Fruityloops that he downloaded and cracked for free. Some of these songs trick you: they start sounding fantastic, enough to make you think "Okay, I'll keep listening." Then the weak handclap snare, techno bass, and synth drop. Along with your bowels. They are more of the same, boring, unoriginal songs that attempt to have some originality by using new sounds. Instead, they sound highly derivative, and the sounds often conflict. Acoustic guitar with techno and hip hop in an RnB song? Someone kill me. And the singing isn't that great either. Now, I know Usher can sing, I'm sure of this. It's just that he doesn't. Instead, he yet again falls in the category of singers that, shockingly enough, don't sing. The only melodic singing is in the chorus, which are often short 4 word lines repeated at least twice, and the verses are just what I call 'talking in a high voice', with the occasional "Ohh!" or "Yeaaah!" If you want to rap, then rap. Don't disguise your raps as songs. It's insulting to the industry, and my ear drums. It's disappointing to see that a genre rich and diverse as RnB can produce such lackluster performers such as Usher. Even more disappointing when we consider that Usher has more fame and notoriety than a lot of more talented, diverse RnB singers, such as Erykah Badu, or Jill Scott. The album is bland, boring, uninteresting, and more of the same ole' same ole. But it will make bank, judging from the plays the single, Love in This Club, gets. F-… Full Review »
  2. JamarioP.
    8
    I here a lot of negative things about this album, but i thinks it's really good. It's a much mire mature album than he has ever made before. And he has some really nice tracks on here. I think people should definitely sit and listen to the words he speak in this album.… Full Review »
  3. sandeep
    9
    Marvelous n amazing.
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