So Confessions was the bench mark but i don't know too many artist that equal or surpass their greatest album, Confessions everything fell into place, he was at a good place in life, happy with himself, with much success, the right people at the right time in his life and it just fell into place but you can't always recapture such greatness. Then he had Here i Stand which after listening to Usher for so long was not his best work but had some nice songs the magic was missing and it was as much to do with his choices in life as it was him trying to live up to Confessions not easy to do. So i scratched that out and use Raymond v Raymond as the follow up album even though to reach Raymond v Raymond he needed to do an album like Here i Stand full of emotion and answering his critics. I certainly am not looking to compare the 2 because much has happened to Usher since Confessions and see it Raymond v Raymond as a new sound, a new Usher and one i'm more happy to listen too than when he put out Here i Stand. What i like most is Usher's writing skills he says things in a way that make it feel like his singing to you and there is no one else there and on this album they are such songs like, Make love into the night, Pro Lover, There goes my Baby and Okay. These are also some great tracks my fav tracks have to be Foolin' around, Make love into the night, There goes my baby, Pro Love, Guilty, OMG which took a while to grow on me but artistically it really is an interesting song and Mars vs Venuse being the true song for me it just captures me in a way that Confessions did, for me is you can play an album all the way through without wanting to skip tracks then you have a complete album tha caputres you everytime you listen to it and this is so for me. I gurantee than you can listen and love at least 6 tracks on this album. Overall i am not disappointed in this Album true Usher fans will not be mad at this album if you set out to compare this to Confessions then yes you will not be happy but if you listen to Ushers songs over the course of his career then you will be very happy. Confessions was the ultimate album therefore i can not give Raymond vs Raymond 5 stars even though this is a great album one which is playable in years to come :)