Composition
An R&B album, Josh Eells of Blender summed up much of the production of Here I Stand as "cocktail-lounge crunk, full of splashy cymbals, jazzy electric guitar and tinkly pianos". Many of its themes were inspired by Foster and Raymond V, resulting in a great number of ballads. Here I Stand opens with an "Intro" (titled "Forever Young" on some copies), while the lead single "Love in This Club" follows, on which Young Jeezy appears. The mid-tempo song features a shuddering synth beat and speaks of a lusting desire in a nightclub. "This Ain't Sex" is a disco-influenced song that "speaks of sex as a privileged act between two consenting adults". "Trading Places" uses guitar instrumentation to host role reversal in both sexual and non-sexual situations in a relationship. "Moving Mountains" is a ballad that draws on synth beats to relate a love struggle to an impossible task, such as moving mountains. The album's sixth track is "What's Your Name", an electro song which features New Wave-influenced synths produced by will.i.am, who also contributes vocals to the song. The "Prayer for You" interlude follows, an ode to Usher's son in which Raymond V cries. Usher prays for his son to be "better than me". "Something Special" is a pop ballad that begins acoustically, and was inspired by Robin Thicke and John Mayer because of its honesty. Usher discussed the song: "It's about the feeling when you're in real love. It could be about my son or my wife."
According to Usher "Love You Gently", a piano-based classic rhythm and blues ballad, is "the one you throw on with your significant other when it's time to get to it. This is why my son's here. It's a baby-maker." Jay-Z appears on the horn-founded "Best Thing", which is about transition to manhood. Usher outlines lifestyle changes since his wife's arrival and turns away from his days as "a hustler and a player" in "Before I Met You", which makes use of guitar and heavy drums. He is suspected of infidelity and compared to his girlfriend's cheating ex-partner on "His Mistakes". The thirteenth track on Here I Stand is "Appetite", which utilizes flutes and has Usher tempted to cheat on his wife. "What's a Man to Do" opens with a Native Indian call, while "Lifetime" contains influences of 1990s R&B. "Love in This Club Part II" features vocals from Beyoncé Knowles and Lil Wayne and samples The Stylistics' "You Are Everything" (1971); its lyrical content is similar to that of Part I, and Wayne's voice is modified through the use of a vocoder. The album's soul and pop jazz-derived title track, "Here I Stand", drew comparisons to Stevie Wonder. With a theme of commitment, it was played at Usher's and Foster's wedding. Here I Stand closes with "Will Work for Love", although it was placed as a hidden track on some copies; Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called it "cute".
Read more about this topic: Here I Stand (Usher Album)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)