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These are his confessions.

Two years after releasing his last album, Usher has a lot to say on his new effort, Raymond V. Raymond. Unfortunately, we’ve heard it all before.

Fresh from divorce, Usher returns to the dance floor with songs about sex, love and relationships.

This time, however, Usher’s baggage weighs him down. The songs on Raymond V. Raymond aren’t celebratory; they’re egocentric. Throughout the album, the ladies’ man tries to reclaim the shine he lost when his marriage ended.

If it weren’t for “Papers,” you wouldn’t know he had been married in the first place. He sings, “And I turned into the man I never thought I’d be/I’m ready to sign them papers, papers, papers.”

It’s no coincidence, then, that the song following “Papers” is titled “So Many Girls.” The topic is like most other Usher tracks, but the production stands out: the drum beat is grungier and the synthesizer line adds a darker layer to the R&B crooner we thought we knew.

The strobe lights turn down for another moment on Raymond, as Usher “gets exotic” with rising singer Nicki Minaj on the single “Lil Freak.” Too bad Minaj’s rap is hotter than any of Usher’s delivery in the whole four and a half minutes, as Minaj makes rapping about Santa’s reindeer sound sexier than making love in a club.

The standout on Raymond, however, is when Usher stands alone in the opening song, “Monstar,” with his self-proclaimed “black heart.”

That, combined with a haunting synth, bouncing hand claps and self-effacing lyrics, make “Monstar” the catchiest Usher song never to be released to radio. It strips away the superficial come-ons like in “Hey Daddy” for a more honest approach to picking up women. Usher whispers, “There’s three sides to every story/There’s one side/There’s the other/Then there’s the truth.”

Now that’s a confession for all the hopeful single ladies out there.