Usher & Diplo // Climax
I’ve always been a massive Usher fan, but I couldn’t help but find the singles from his last album, “Raymond V. Raymond” just a little bit underwhelming. The album was nice enough, but it tried too hard to pander to commercial tastes in places after the underperformance of ‘Here I Stand’.
Now Usher’s back with a new track called “Climax”, and it might just be his best single since “Moving Mountains”, or possibly even earlier. Produced by a personal favourite of mine, Diplo, the song tells the story of a relationship which has reached its peak and just isn’t working anymore.
Diplo describes the track as “next level electrosoul”, and I can definitely see what he’s getting at with that comment. Usher’s falsetto glides over a minimalist trance beat, backed by R&B-lite snares and kicks. The track builds up during throughout the course of the song, but keeps a sensual feeling alive from start to finish by refusing to explode at any point. It’s this restraint which is the song’s top quality, as Usher gives us a track you’d expect The Weeknd to be putting out.
Hopefully this track will make Usher’s upcoming seventh album - everything from Usher’s vocals, the crisp production and the atmosphere of the song is perfect, it would be a crime if this never made the tracklisting. After the success of his last album, hopefully Usher’s next album will see him ditch Guetta & co, and produce some top quality R&B while also taking a few risks.
