Usher’s Confessions stays at No. 1

Everybody loves a lover. Perhaps more so, the broken-hearted ones. Just take a look at what has happened to Usher’s new album Confessions which is made up of his lovelorn musings over a failed relationship. As per the Billboard Magazine listing, it has been the number one seller in the US hit charts for eight weeks out of the nine that it has been in the market. It has been declared Platinum three times over and has already sold more than 3.5 million copies in North America alone.

Not only that, the driving Yeah! and the mellow ballad Burn, two of the best cuts in the album have been alternating for the number one slot in the Hot 100 hit list. Two weeks ago, it was Yeah! on top. This week it is Burn. And what do you know, a third song by Usher Confessions Part II, has also entered the top 10 this week and is now nicely perched at number nine. I will not be surprised if this one will also make it to the top. After that, we should watch out for Simple Things which also sounds like another big hit or Can U Handle It or maybe Do It to Me. Maybe you should just listen to the entire thing to see for yourself what Usher has made this time.

The song Confessions Part II fully reveals what Yeah! and Burn hinted at. It is introduced by Confessions, an interlude wherein Usher receives the news from his other girlfriend that she is pregnant and intends to have the baby. Confessions Part II is about what happens after. Caught at being unfaithful, he loses his other girl whom he truly loves. News have it that this girl is Chili of TLC and that they broke up after more than two years together just as Usher was starting work on his new album.

Pained over what happened, Usher opened his heart and soul for all to see in Confessions and came up with his most successful work to date. Not that the guy is any stranger to hits. Usher Raymond has been a hip hop superstar since he was 14 years old when he was signed to a contract to record for LA Reid. He has since then worked only with the biggest names in the field of R&B like P.Diddy, Reid, Babyface, Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon and Ludacris. He is also a famous man about town, very handsome, a great dresser, always a hit with the ladies, a young pop artist who is prodigiously talented that he can call himself Mr. Entertainment and nobody will bat an eyelash.

Usher, who also acts in films and television, is only 24 years old. If he gets lucky, there will be no more heartbreaks in his future but if not, then can you just imagine the vast amount of music he will be able to create each time he gets dumped by a girl. Broken- hearted or not though, listeners will not be able to withhold admiration for Confessions. It is a first rate production. Usher’s innate grasp of the music enables him to let loose with his singing and writing so that everything flows into a perfect whole. Some hip hoppers might complain that this sound is too sexy, too smooth and too posh to be rap. But times have changed. Hip hop has moved out of its inner city origins and Usher presents this new ideal that a lot of people find very much to their taste. Tapika Goes Acoustic

Now we go from R&B to acoustic sounds. Acoustic music continues to reign supreme nightly at Tapika on Katipunan Avenue, Blue Ridge, Quezon City, with an all-star line-up led by Paolo Santos on Thursdays, June 10 and June 24. The schedule for June has Mosaic on June 29; 17:28 tonight, June 16, 19, 23 and 30; Adjundie on Thursdays, June 3 and 17; U-Turn on Fridays, June 4, 11, 18 and 25; Thor on Saturdays, June 5, 12, 19 and 26; Sugar Shack on Sundays, June 6 and 13; Sole Acoustix on Mondays, June 7 and 21, MYMP on Tuesdays, June 8 and 15; Pido on Mondays, June 14 and 28; Stone Free on Sundays, June 20 and 27; and White Light on Tuesday, June 22.