Usher - Looking 4 You: Usher tries to go electro. To make sure he succeeds, an all star production cast, including Swedish House Mafia, are brought in. Too bad they forgot to write good songs. Well, with the exception of "Climax", which is absolutely phenomenal
Justin Bieber - Believe: Believe will certainly make all the Beliebers scream. Then again, an album of white noise would probably do the same, so that's not saying much. Most of the album is forgettable pop mush, and there's nothing as stellar as Baby to save it all. "As Long As You Love Me" (not a cover of the classic Backstreet Boys song) comes close though.
Linkin Park - Living Things: I have no idea what happened to Linkin Park. Everyone in my generation grew up on the first two Linkin Park albums; both albums are near perfect. "In the End" and "Numb" are stone cold classics. Then, they went and released the mediocre Minutes to Midnight and the abominable A Thousand Suns. Mike Shinoda's rapping, which was never stellar but always solid, rarely showed up, and the songwriting quality plummeted.
Living Things, unfortunately, follows the blueprint of these more recent albums. There's not a single good song, and, though it's not as horrendous as A Thousand Suns, it makes Minutes to Midnight look like a classic by comparison. It might not be the runt of the litter, but it's still a baby only its parents could love
Maroon 5 - Overexposed: A decade ago, Maroon 5 released one of the greatest albums of all time, Songs About Jane; it was perfect from beginning to end. Their output over the next half decade was far less impressive. They released two mediocre albums which only managed to spawn one top 10 single.
Finally, last year, they gave in and got some outside help. That help came in the form of Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the geniuses behind Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, and Kesha. The resulting single, "Moves Like Jagger", didn't sound much like Maroon 5 and had an incredibly gimmicky feature in the form of fellow The Voice judge Christina Aguilera. However, it brought them back to the top of the charts.
Clearly, the allure of continuing that success was too much to turn down. Martin, Luke and their proteges have a hand in 4 of the songs on Overexposed, including the lead single and current hit Payphone. Ryan Tedder (singer/songwriter of OneRepublic and writer of Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love and Beyonce's Halo) has a hand in two more. These collaborations prove to be somewhat fruitful. "Payphone" is not half bad and "Daylight" is fairly good as well.
The real gem of the album, however, is a bonus track called "Wipe Your Eyes." It's the best song Adam Levine's written in half a decade, and the drummer puts in an epic, energetic performance that sets the tone for the whole track. There's also an awesome sample: Amadou & Mariam's Sabali. Amadou & Mariam are a blind couple from Mali, and "Sabali" is the standout track from their beautiful Welcome to Mali, which was released back in 2008 and featured production work from Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz.
tl;dr: All these albums are mediocre, however Usher's "Climax" and Maroon 5's "Wipe Your Eyes" are stellar songs.
Justin Bieber - Believe: Believe will certainly make all the Beliebers scream. Then again, an album of white noise would probably do the same, so that's not saying much. Most of the album is forgettable pop mush, and there's nothing as stellar as Baby to save it all. "As Long As You Love Me" (not a cover of the classic Backstreet Boys song) comes close though.
Linkin Park - Living Things: I have no idea what happened to Linkin Park. Everyone in my generation grew up on the first two Linkin Park albums; both albums are near perfect. "In the End" and "Numb" are stone cold classics. Then, they went and released the mediocre Minutes to Midnight and the abominable A Thousand Suns. Mike Shinoda's rapping, which was never stellar but always solid, rarely showed up, and the songwriting quality plummeted.
Living Things, unfortunately, follows the blueprint of these more recent albums. There's not a single good song, and, though it's not as horrendous as A Thousand Suns, it makes Minutes to Midnight look like a classic by comparison. It might not be the runt of the litter, but it's still a baby only its parents could love
Maroon 5 - Overexposed: A decade ago, Maroon 5 released one of the greatest albums of all time, Songs About Jane; it was perfect from beginning to end. Their output over the next half decade was far less impressive. They released two mediocre albums which only managed to spawn one top 10 single.
Finally, last year, they gave in and got some outside help. That help came in the form of Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the geniuses behind Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, and Kesha. The resulting single, "Moves Like Jagger", didn't sound much like Maroon 5 and had an incredibly gimmicky feature in the form of fellow The Voice judge Christina Aguilera. However, it brought them back to the top of the charts.
Clearly, the allure of continuing that success was too much to turn down. Martin, Luke and their proteges have a hand in 4 of the songs on Overexposed, including the lead single and current hit Payphone. Ryan Tedder (singer/songwriter of OneRepublic and writer of Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love and Beyonce's Halo) has a hand in two more. These collaborations prove to be somewhat fruitful. "Payphone" is not half bad and "Daylight" is fairly good as well.
The real gem of the album, however, is a bonus track called "Wipe Your Eyes." It's the best song Adam Levine's written in half a decade, and the drummer puts in an epic, energetic performance that sets the tone for the whole track. There's also an awesome sample: Amadou & Mariam's Sabali. Amadou & Mariam are a blind couple from Mali, and "Sabali" is the standout track from their beautiful Welcome to Mali, which was released back in 2008 and featured production work from Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz.
tl;dr: All these albums are mediocre, however Usher's "Climax" and Maroon 5's "Wipe Your Eyes" are stellar songs.
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