"Scream" Usher

"If you wanna scream, 'Yeah!'," Usher sings in the chorus of his new single, "Scream," "let me know and I'll take you there." Unfortunately, it's a place we've been many times before. Collaborating once again with Max Martin and Shellback (who produced his 2010 hit "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love Again"), the song takes Usher back to the same electropop territory that has seen him get increasingly generic as an artist—and anonymous as a singer—over his last few albums. Not that the syncopated house beat and "ooh baby baby" refrain of "Scream" won't make for a delightful time on the dance floor, but after the sultry simplicity of "Climax," this is definitely a disappointment. B