Album Review: Coming Home by Usher

Usher Raymond IV is having a moment. Calling it a second wind doesn't feel quite apt, since the R&B icon's sails have never truly stilled. But fresh off a twice-extended Las Vegas residency and on the cusp of a Super Bowl halftime performance and world tour, Usher is back in the popular consciousness in a way he hasn't been in at least a decade and a half.

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When it comes to USHER's three-decade career it's maybe best to view it in two phases: the Imperial phase, which covers his breakthrough ‘My Way’ in 1997, 2001 hit parade '8701' and career masterstroke 'Confessions' ; and the post-2005 juncture which saw the R&B titan try to reclaim the glory with trend-driven forays into EDM, occasionally cutting through the filler with brooding ambient-R&B symphonies like 'Climax ' . Usher's ninth studio album, 'COMING HOME' , arrives eight years after his last solo effort 'Hard II Love' ; timed to coincide with his Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show on Sunday. It comes at a time when we're debating when our favourite musicians from the oughts transition into being legacy acts, and whether they can thrive in a future-shock streaming era which has stratified, and homogenised, the listening marketplace.

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