Usher Music:
Hallucinations
Usher Music:
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| Music Hallucinations by David Usher |  | ||||||||||||||||
Hallucinations Track Listing: Editorial Review: Hallucinations Reviews: On "I'm Coming Down" David as a vocalist expresses such desperate discontent with normalcy as his voice hits the upper registers with an incredibly dramatic music, "I thought you should know that inside I've grown cold, and I fight every day to lose control." "Time of Our Lives" is currently #1 in my own personal top ten. From its opening line, "I once saw a man on fire staring out of his window," we hear the urgency of emotion that is a hallmark of classic Usher and the guitars chime like they were spark plugged from the Allman Brothers, "Who of us will tell what these dark days will bring?" It's a breathtaking track worth the price of the CD. "Message Home" has another startlingly original melody with Usher's piano creating urgency, "If we never try then we'll never take, If we never bend then we'll never break, if we stimulate & we sexualize, will we need it more." The guitars swirl like smoke up a chimney. Another breathtaking track. "Surfacing" is another amazing melody with lyric and vocal creating urgency followed by peace, "The picture perfect life is fading out of view & high above me I can feel the world, but I don't need it, I don't need it, I don't need it ... I just need you." The final hidden live track that's not listed is also incredible. I don't know what to call it other than the first few words of the lyric "Smells on the Air," "Caught in the rage & the fire of things, all the brightness that burns is fumbling through, like a child in the dark, when her nakedness comes, I'm shocked by the color, the glorious weight of your skin comes alive." Usher simply marries melody, lyric, arrangement, powerfully emotional singing, and sterling musicianship on a par with almost no other musician. This is music that is urgent, unique and unforgettable. Seek & you shall find! Bravo! Less intimate than Little Songs and more ethereal than Morning Orbit, this breathy third offering from the lead singer of cult alt-rock band Moist is a different beast indeed, lacking depth and substance as its title intimates. The squeaky-clean, commercialised compositions and trite emotions that form the core of this narcissistic album will irritate diehard fans while seducing new ones. Devil By My Side is just plain lazy: it's all ooh oohs, back-up choruses and "believe in hope, believe in faith, believe that hate will never die". Usher says he'd never sung falsetto in public until I'm Coming Down, where he whispers confidingly, "I thought you should know that inside I've grown cold" followed by an unholy wail. Oh, please. There's nothing more pathetic than a 37-year-old man writing angsty teenage poetry in an attempt to seem profound. Especially when said man is capable of better. Much better, as evidenced by the unlisted bonuses which are easily the best tracks on the album: live recordings of earlier efforts Saint Lawrence River, Butterfly and Forestfire. Flashes of inspired songwriting do compensate somewhat, such as the unreasonably infectious Numb and the urgency of Message Home. His dainty, froufrou rendition of the Manic Street Preachers' If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next makes me wonder: can this really, truly, be the same David Usher who birthed the evocative Saint Lawrence River and the anthemic Push? Maybe I'm just hallucinating. | |||||||||||||||||
