Teaming up with Lil Jon for a crunkified version of his signature smooth R&B sound on Yeah, Usher then spends the rest of this 2004 album confessing his sins - not only is he cheating on his girlfriend, but his sidepiece has just let him know that she’s pregnant and the baby is his. What a story! Interestingly, the concept behind the album is a complete invention for the sake of buzz; the incident was borrowed by Usher from his collaborator Jermaine Dupri and extrapolated across such hits as Burn and Caught Up. The gambit worked - Confessions was the second best-selling album of the noughties, trailing only behind NSYNC’s No Strings Attached.
Confessions is also #432 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, which means Christopher Macarthur-Boyd and Liam Withnail have listened to it, and now they’re going to talk about it. Featuring hot takes on everything from sacred geometry, T-Pain, tiny desks, Edgar Allan Poe and 9/11, as well as Tattoo Woohoo/Tattoo Boohoo, Quiz and Secret Posho. All that and more on this week’s Enjoy An Album. Enjoy!