Versus

Five months after the release of Raymond V Raymond — shortly after the album went platinum — a deluxe edition containing a second disc was released. Containing eight songs and dubbed Versus, the second disc was also spun off as a separate release, sparing devout Usher fans from the irritation of buying Raymond V Raymond a second time. (Perhaps LaFace learned a lesson when they pulled that stunt with the deluxe edition of Confessions). With the addition of Raymond V Raymond’s “There Goes My Baby,” the number one R&B song at the time of release, the stand-alone Versus technically contains nine songs. It mostly resembles a batch of leftovers, though it also functioned as a momentum maintainer; two other songs, the Euro-pop club track “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” and the sleazed-up “Hot Tottie” (featuring a Jay-Z guest verse), were on the R&B chart before the disc was issued. For the most part, Versus falls in line with its parent release’s mix of detached hedonism and pleading heartache. – Andy Kellman