Coming Home

数々のシングルを通して自らの世界観を拡大し続けてきたアッシャーから、2024年、新たに9作目となるフル・アルバムがリリース。

アルバム『Coming Home』のエグゼクティヴ・プロデューサーはUsherとL.A. Reid。二人ののクリエイティブな再会は2004年のダイアモンド・アルバム『Confessions』以来となる。Summer Walker、21 Savage、Latto、H.E.R.、Pheelz、Jung Kook (BTS)等が客演。アルバムは主にジョージア州アトランタでレコーディングされ、Sean Garrett、Lil John、The Avila Brothers、Mel & Mus、Tricky Stewart、Rico Love、The-Dream、Jermaine Dupri、D Mile等、アトランタで最もホットなプロデューサーたちが参加した。

Usher was at an elevated if odd juncture when he released Coming Home. Delivered between the end of his twice-extended Las Vegas residency and Super Bowl LVIII halftime performance, the album also preceded a tour he named Past Present Future to signal that he wouldnt be content to do just the hits. The singer was striving to remain relevant while recognizing his status as a legacy act. He had surprised with "A" (a Zaytoven collaboration recorded while he was working on this album), teased the possibility of a sequel to the diamond platinum Confessions, given a nostalgic NPR Tiny Desk Concert (with nothing post-Confessions in the set list), and maintained visibility with occasional singles and featured appearances, often teamed with younger artists. His first true studio album in eight years attempts a similar balance. It does represent a sort of homecoming -- hes reunited with executive producer L.A. Reid after a two-decade split -- while warding off any perception that its Confessions 2 under another title. Like all of Ushers earlier post-millennial LPs, Coming Home is long and pieced together. None of the collaborators, a mix of longtime partners and new associates, is on more than a handful of the 20 tracks. It starts at what sounds like a closing chapter of a love story: hard-fought resolution of romantic perseverance through slick dance-pop. In the following consecutive songs, Usher amicably breaks up with Summer Walker, serenades Latto (helped a second time by Billy Joels "Uptown Girl"), laments falling in love, gets lascivious (with "leave you for dead" a strange declaration of conquest), and longs for an ex. His and H.E.R.s lovely piano duet "Risk It All" is then lifted from the soundtrack for The Color Purple. After a few more adequate songs without sonic or lyrical linearity -- a tender collaboration with simpatico Afrobeats producer/singer Pheelz stands out most -- the album hits its stride with a sequence of slow jams demonstrating that Usher is at the top of his game as a singer, still much more than a mere entertainer. A couple tracks pair him with early partners Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, and while those are fine, theyre eclipsed by the Minneapolitan pop-funk of "I Love U" (the-Dream, Tricky Stewart, and DMile) and smudged electro of "Luckiest Man" (Brandon "B.A.M." Hodge). Usher is in his element, at his most charming, throughout that stretch of the album. The finishing touch is the "Usher remix" of Jung Kooks rubbery disco-funk hit "Standing Next to You," thereby making another intercontinental connection -- and sounding only a little more randomly placed than anything else on offer. ~ Andy Kellman

8年ぶりのソロ作。ソフト&メロウなアフロビーツ"Ruin"やビリー・ジョエル使いの"A-Town Girl"、ジョングクと共演した"Standing Next To You"など話題のトピックもあるものの、本作に通底するのはアッシャーの揺るぎないR&Bイズムだ。LA・リードが総指揮を務め、同郷アトランタのザ・ドリームやジャーメイン・デュプリ、Dマイルなどまさに盤石のプロデュース陣が、トレンド感は控えめの手堅いミディアム～スロウ・ナンバー群を提供。ヒットボーイ作の"Bop"で聴かせるセンシュアルなファルセットをはじめ、アッシャーのマチュアな振る舞いと相まって満足感の高いR&Bアルバムとなっている。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子