Few people would ever accuse Usher of lacking swagger. But by his own admission, he had lost a bit of his renowned artistic mojo in his life as a husband and a father. On the eve of his new album release, though, Usher is out to show the world that a recently divorced 31-year-old father of two can still bring the energy.

“I had checked out,” Usher told Billboard. “I went all the way into being super husband and super dad. I put my swagger down for a minute, but I didn’t throw it away. Now it’s time to get it back.”

Usher would put his newly rediscovered swagger on display on his latest album, the delayed but finally launched “Raymond v. Raymond.” The goal of his newest album is to regain the carefree, fun-loving vibe that he lost sight of, and to counteract some of the serious, mature tone that he exuded on his previous album, “Here I Stand.”

Usher’s fans had his very public divorce in mind as they evaluated “Here I Stand.” It was a more serious, more mature album than his previous hit records, including “8701″ and “Confessions.”

Billboard talked to Lamonda Williams, the director of video on demand for Music Choice, about the different albums:

Here was a transitional album that got him from the Usher we knew through his tumultuous marriage and divorce. Now you hear him boldly breaking out on the singles Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) and Lil Freak. There’s an in-your-face cockiness, but in an I’m free kind of way.

Even with its more adult-oriented themes and tone, “Here I Stand” still sold 1.2 million copies. But these figures paled in comparison to his more fun albums. “8701,” for example, sold 4.7 million copies, and “Confessions” sold 9.7 million.

Williams thinks that Usher will be able to restore his popularity with his more upbeat new album, despite an album title in “Raymond v. Raymond” that sounds oddly like the title of a divorce case.

One way that Usher and his producer, Mark Pitts, did to find that old flavor was to leave Usher’s hometown of Atlanta for the more free-spirited and less personal Las Vegas. I didn’t want my music to be biased by what I was going through in my personal life, said Usher of the move. Pitts, for his part, told Billboard that the new album was taking the approach that we got to get this old man [stuff] off you, talking about Usher.

Usher was still married when he and Pitts headed for Las Vegas in late 2008.

The singer is hesitant, though, to pigeon hole his album as a vehicle for his feelings about divorce. People immediately thought, Oh, he’s about to talk about what happened in his marriage, said Usher. But it would be too shortsighted to just talk about my relationship. It was an outlet for stories I’d heard.

Perhaps the final word on Usher’s artistic viewpoint of life after marriage and divorce comes in a line from the song “Guilty,” a collaboration with rapper T.I., in which Usher, in full swing, sings that he is “single and ready to mingle.”

This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 9:12 am and is filed under Celebrity Divorce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.