E-Mail This Article to a Friend The entertainer Usher’s musicality sets him apart BY SEAN RICHARDSON

It goes without saying that the two biggest pop albums of early 2004, Usher’s Confessions (Arista) and Norah Jones’s Feels Like Home (Blue Note), have little in common. One of the most striking differences between them is their singles’ performance on the Billboard Hot 100: Usher’s "Yeah!" has spent most of the year at #1 whereas Jones’s "Sunrise" has not even cracked the chart. Sure, that makes Jones’s sales numbers even more remarkable than they are on their own. But it also proves that the pop zeitgeist belongs to Usher alone, just as it did to his labelmates OutKast when they conquered radio and retail at the end of last year.

Usher’s "Yeah!" does justice to the exclamation point in its title: it’s more conventional than OutKast’s "Hey Ya!" but no less booty-shakin’. The track tells a familiar tale of dance-floor seduction, with a crucial plot twist ("I got so caught up, I forgot she told me/Her and my girl used to be the best of homies") that’s easy to lose in the frantic sway of the chorus. Usher is a classy singer who knows his way around a high note, but he’s not the only star of the show. The beats are courtesy of Lil’ Jon, who uses the bubbly synths and playful growls of his signature "Get Low" as a blueprint. Ludacris joins the party on the bridge, spitting out a forceful rap that climaxes with a celebration of the ultimate playboy fantasy: "We want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed!"

Now that "Yeah!" has reached the saturation point on the airwaves, it’s shaping up to be the biggest hit of Usher’s career. That’s no small feat: the 25-year-old Atlanta crooner has been all over the charts since 1994, when he emerged under the tutelage of R&B power broker Antonio "LA" Reid. Three years later, Usher came of age on the blockbuster My Way, which established him as one of the decade’s hottest teen heartthrobs and has sold six million copies. On the follow-up, 8701, he bolstered his impressive list of Top 10 singles and was rewarded with his first two Grammys.

Through it all, Usher has never strayed far from the R&B mainstream, so it’s no surprise that Confessions is less stylistic progression than franchise extension. After Lil’ Jon, the album’s marquee producer is Jermaine Dupri, the veteran melody man responsible for the majority of Usher’s greatest hits. On the aching ballad "Burn," which has followed "Yeah!" into the Top 10, the star finds himself in a classic romantic tangle. "You hate the thought of her being with someone else/But you know that it’s over," he sings, slipping in and out of a falsetto on the disc’s heartiest vocal performance.

Usher’s real-life girl trouble landed him in the tabloids last fall, when TLC’s Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas went on an Atlanta radio station and revealed that his infidelity had put an end to their romance. That incident imparts a voyeuristic thrill to the album’s third single, "Confessions Part II," on which Usher drops a bombshell: "My chick on the side said she got one on the way." He’s gone on record as saying the song is a true story about something that happened before he got involved with Chilli, but public perception remains focused on her. Regardless, "Confessions Part II" is a highlight: Usher’s voice is full of regret, and Dupri gives him plenty of poignant hooks to work with.

Nothing else on Confessions is that provocative, but the hour-long disc is a solid collection of party anthems and slow jams. Usher brings in legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson) for the apologetic "Truth Hurts": this time, he worries that his girl might get angry enough about his misbehavior to "pull the hot grits out." Two tracks later, on the funk-guitar blowout "Bad Girl," he’s back out on the prowl. The roster of A-list producers runs deep: Just Blaze (Jay-Z) drops one of his trademark soul samples on "Throwback," and Philly beatmasters Andre Harris and Vidal Davis deliver a backbeat the Neptunes would be proud of on "Caught Up."

Speaking of the Neptunes, who produced Usher’s 2002 hit "U Don’t Have To Call" but are absent here: Confessions begs comparison with one of their recent triumphs, Justin Timberlake’s Justified (Jive). As all-around entertainers, Usher and Justin are about even, but Usher’s musicality stands out among pop stars of his generation. Even on late-album trifles like "Do It to Me" and "Take Your Hand," his lyrics and melodies rise above the high-priced grooves. Celebrity gossip aside, that’s what really got him to the top.