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The Singles Bar: Usher, “Climax”

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Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 02/14/2012 at 5:58 PM Reviews

“I’m pretty sure in 9 months there are gonna be a lot of new babies that this song is responsible for,” said producer Diplo on Twitter about “Climax,” his new collaboration with Usher. On the surface, this seems like an unlikely statement; Diplo’s best known for dance tracks, and while that statement could completely apply to almost any given Usher track from his heyday, it’d be rather odd for his crossover dance-pop hits as of late. (If you’re reading this in 20 years or so, and “More” or “DJ Got Us Falling In Love” or–ugh–”OMG” was responsible for your existence, we first apologize and, second, wish you luck in your 2010s pop research.)

Diplo’s statement is probably correct. (We’re assuming.) You could probably come to the same conclusion after listening to the track, below:

Somewhat less provocatively, Diplo called “Climax” track “electrosoul.” It’s an apt description just on a sonic level, but it’s doubly fitting considering “Climax” is a track of in-betweens and gray areas. At the risk of over-praising an Usher track for involving Diplo, which is code for praising it for not being traditional neo-R&B or dance-pop–it’s happened a bit already, I imagine that’s going to happen a lot more, and it does Usher’s past work a huge disservice–”Climax” is the strongest, best-constructed track from Usher in a while. It’s not quite a ballad, not quite mid-tempo. You can’t dance to it–that much is obvious–but you can hear the synths ratcheting up in that direction, until they don’t. Its biggest debt to dance, rather is the meticulous, controlled pacing, from quiet to forceful–yes, a metaphor you could extend if you so cared.

Nor is it entirely a love track, slow jam or breakup track; its chorus, “we’re together, then we’re undone / can’t commit, so we choose to run away,” co-exists with “you said it’s better if we love each other separately / I just need you one more time, I can’t get what we had off my mind,” with and a delivery of “I’m on my knees” as, ah, effective as anything Usher’s ever done. (Someone involved’s been listening to The-Dream, we imagine.) That makes “we’ve reached the climax” not just a double entendre but triple; besides the obvious, it acknowledges that a relationship’s hit a peak, but also that there’s nowhere else to go but down. If this track’s any indication, though, you can’t say the same any longer for Usher. He’s still got it and always still had it; now, finally, he’s got a track to match.

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Rating: 4.0/5 (2 votes cast)