1998 Usher: You Make Me Wanna

First number one from another self styled 'King of R&B', 'You Make Me Wanna' is not the usual generic groove of urban smoothness but is instead driven by a sparser hiss of hi hat percussion and clipped rhythm that's a constant finger poke in the ribs to keep your attention. So far, so different, and yet in common with modern R&B as a whole, there's a robotic building block structure to the song suggestive of something constructed in layers at a mixing desk instead of organically grown from a jam session. That's not a criticism per se, but while there's not a rough edge in sight, there's not a lot of soul either. To be fair, maybe that's my 'fault'; Usher isn't 'speaking' to me either within the genre (which I'm not too fussed on anyway) or within the context of the song itself - 'You Make Me Wanna' sees our man telling a third party that she's the sort of gal he'd consider leaving his woman for. Which isn't the best chat up line I've ever heard and it chucks a bucket of dirty water over the waxed gloss of the whole to leave rather cheap and tacky sheen. Wonder if it worked?