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Apple Music 100 Best Albums

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Confessions

USHER

95

On his ambitious, soap-opera-worthy fourth LP, Usher Raymond reaches his final form.

If you have a distinct memory of 2004, then you remember how inescapable USHER’s fourth studio album was for the entirety of that year. This was Usher Raymond in his final form: No longer a boyish heartthrob under the tutelage of top producers who doubled as mentors, he’d finally reached his artistic prime.

“We wanted to create an incredible body of work that was about real deep conversation.”

USHER

The album’s title track tells an enthralling tale in which USHER has to admit to his infidelity; the song’s sequel, “Confessions, Pt. II” (a ubiquitous single), ramps up the drama when he finds out the woman he’s been cheating with is three months pregnant. The story’s closing, “Burn,” finds him mourning the relationship he obliterated.

And as affecting as that trilogy was, there are massive hits at every corner of Confessions. “Yeah!” with Lil Jon and Ludacris encapsulates the playful, hard-hitting feeling of Atlanta’s scene at the time, and “My Boo” with Alicia Keys is one of the defining duets of the 2000s. Confessions has achieved a status that few albums in the 21st century can live up to, but its influence is evident in how many have tried.

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Untrue

Burial

94

Gritty but still gentle, an instant touchstone of UK electronic music.

Released in 2007, Untrue immediately became a touchstone of UK electronic music, aided by the mystique surrounding Burial’s anonymity (to this day, William Emmanuel Bevan rarely grants interviews). The album is gritty without being abrasive, with house-like vocals that lend a gentleness to the thundering, muddy bass. The album’s second track, “Archangel,” is perhaps one of the most recognizable songs in electronic music, with its pitched-down soprano sample consisting of the lines “Holding you/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone.” (Bevan apparently wrote and produced the song in 20 minutes, following the death of his dog.)

On much of Untrue, Bevan sounds like he’s attempting to triangulate the sound of isolation after dark. He wrote and produced the record nocturnally, insisting on getting to work long after the sun went down. Tracks like “In McDonalds” and “Homeless” are indicative of that approach: They evoke something quietly desperate, both in their titles and their spare compositions; the result is electronic music that’s deeply human and affecting.

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Untrue by Burial