We’re of two minds about this one…
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[5.33]
Brad Shoup: The track pleads for darkness, and winks about merlot just don’t cut it. Even Usher serving as his own Auto-Tune isn’t much of a recommendation.
[4]
Jer Fairall: Eerie and tingling enough to suggest that something more sinister than the usual Usher seduction awaits whomever it is he can’t wait to get home to, but Rick Ross sure knows how to kill the mood with a WTF of a Trayvon Martin reference.
[7]
Anthony Easton: For an anthem about sex, it’s both self-directed and fairly polite. More yes means yes, about her autonomy: “She decides to take her skirt off” and “what she’ll do to me” are moves that I find both politically adroit and maybe a bit more erotic than yr standard bump and grind. The production is tired, and Rick Ross is extraneous to anything interesting, but the autonomy is worth a few points.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Half of this is as seductive as Usher wants it to be, though his moves were Kelly Rowland’s once. Half is self-parody, on Ursh’s part (“show my chest”) and Rick Ross’ (everything). None of it gets as explicit as you’d expect — notice how no sex actually occurs — which, after the horndog shitshow of “Scream”, is refreshing and, dare I say it, rather effective.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: Usher’s song is a silken [8]; Rawse’s verse is a tin-eared [1]. Survey says:
[4]
Ramzi Awn: Clean, dirty and sparkling: classic Usher. Mostly, it works. The “Lemme See” refrain is his sweet spot, and it’s pretty sweet, but other moments in the song fall flat instead of moving between the synths like Usher does so well. Overall, the track is a little more complicated than it needs to be — the build-up a little too clunky — but it doesn’t leave you cold either.
[7]
Will Adams: There’s a cool space-rave synth line – reminiscent of a classic trance riff – buried somewhere in there, but Usher is pushed way to the front. Which isn’t a terrible thing except for the moments where he contorts his voice to nasty proportions in the pre-chorus. This is functional club&B, but I wish there were more to distract me from Rick Ross’ woefully inappropriate Trayvon Martin reference.
[4]
Colin Small: Despite the inherent awkwardness of directly addressing the showing of one’s chest, Usher manages to make a whole lot of strangeness into something quite sexy. Unfortunately, the song’s kind of half Usher, half Ross, in both its production and its vocals. Ross not only doesn’t try to fit his lyrical content to the song, he’s kind of a just a wet blanket in general.
[7]
Alfred Soto: On one hand I’m glad Usher’s falsetto is supple and un-Autotuned enough to hit the chorus bullseye; on the other, said chorus is treacly. Rick Ross just makes this thing longer than necessary.
[4]