Coming Home [Clear Vinyl 2 LP] in Bloomington, MN

Usher
was at an elevated if odd juncture when he released
Coming Home
. Delivered between the end of his twice-extended Las Vegas residency and Super Bowl LVIII halftime performance, the album also preceded a tour he named Past Present Future to signal that he wouldn't be content to do just the hits. The singer was striving to remain relevant while recognizing his status as a legacy act. He had surprised with
"A"
(a
Zaytoven
collaboration recorded while he was working on this album), teased the possibility of a sequel to the diamond platinum
Confessions
, given a nostalgic NPR Tiny Desk Concert (with nothing post-
in the set list), and maintained visibility with occasional singles and featured appearances, often teamed with younger artists. His first true studio album in eight years attempts a similar balance. It does represent a sort of homecoming -- he's reunited with executive producer
L.A. Reid
after a two-decade split -- while warding off any perception that it's Confessions 2 under another title. Like all of
's earlier post-millennial LPs,
is long and pieced together. None of the collaborators, a mix of longtime partners and new associates, is on more than a handful of the 20 tracks. It starts at what sounds like a closing chapter of a love story: hard-fought resolution of romantic perseverance through slick dance-pop. In the following consecutive songs,
amicably breaks up with
Summer Walker
, serenades
Latto
(helped a second time by
Billy Joel
's "Uptown Girl"), laments falling in love, gets lascivious (with "leave you for dead" a strange declaration of conquest), and longs for an ex. His and
H.E.R.
's lovely piano duet "Risk It All" is then lifted from the soundtrack for
The Color Purple
. After a few more adequate songs without sonic or lyrical linearity -- a tender collaboration with simpatico Afrobeats producer/singer
Pheelz
stands out most -- the album hits its stride with a sequence of slow jams demonstrating that
is at the top of his game as a singer, still much more than a mere entertainer. A couple tracks pair him with early partners
Jermaine Dupri
and
Bryan-Michael Cox
, and while those are fine, they're eclipsed by the Minneapolitan pop-funk of "I Love U" (
the-Dream
,
Tricky Stewart
, and
D'Mile
) and smudged electro of "Luckiest Man" (
Brandon "B.A.M." Hodge
).
is in his element, at his most charming, throughout that stretch of the album. The finishing touch is the "Usher remix" of
Jung Kook
's rubbery disco-funk hit "Standing Next to You," thereby making another intercontinental connection -- and sounding only a little more randomly placed than anything else on offer. ~ Andy Kellman