For the past 10 years, we've watch Brandy grow from a bubbly, sweet teenager to an intelligent, beautiful woman. Just the past 2 years, Brandy has been through a lot from being a mother to divorcing her husband. Also, she replaced Rodney Jerkins with Timbaland as her main producer. From all the stuff that she's been through and having a new producer, would her new album be as good as her previous albums.
(Just for this review, I'm abandoning the song-to-song formula.)
To answer your question, the album is good. It doesn't compare to Never Say Never or even Full Moon, but that doesn't make me like the album any less. There are plenty of cons and pros to this album. First off, having Timbaland as her new producer is a good and bad thing. It's good cause she's expanding her sound, that's something every artist should do. It's a bad thing cause Timbaland's production is very powerhouse-y and Brandy doesn't really need that type of production. Also, Timbaland is a damn one trick pony. All the stuff you heard from previous songs he produced, you'll hear it here. But some of his stuff is successful with Brandy:
Take Focus, it's a great mid-tempo song and it has bunch of production layered on top of each other, but it works. The music is seductive and Brandy's vocals are the star this song (and the whole album) as they range from a low raspy voice to sweet & gentle to belting...kinda. Brandy doesn't belt like she used in her early career sadly, but anyway this song has Timbaland's usual production and Brandy actually sounds comfortable in this song. Who Is She 2 U is another song that works even though the production could be a bit more subtle. It has a soulful 70s feel with the keyboards and percussion. Once again, Brandy's vocals is the main focus of this song. Her voice is very confident and the song, overall, is solid. Should I Go is a beautiful mid-tempo song with Brandy questioning on whether she wants to stay in the business. The Coldplay's "Clocks" sample is perfect and for once Timbaland's production is very subtle. If anyone wants to really hear how much of a good vocalist she is, listen to this song. The last few seconds where her voices overlap each other is just beautiful. The lyrics are very personal to Brandy and you can really see her doubting whether to stay or not.
Kanye West contributes two songs on this album and he's a one trick pony too, when it comes to producing. But these songs work for her as they don't rely on production as much. Talk About Our Love is a typical Kanye West song with it's 70's feel and string-laden hook. Brandy's voice is excellent and the song is solid, but God must have been sitting in the tub instead of answering my prayers, cause Kanye West ends up messing the song up when he raps. Same goes for Where You Wanna Be. It has KW's typical production with it's piano, violins, and a beat I heard in his previous songs before. Brandy's voice is excellent, but T.I. just messes it up with his verse.
I have pointed out the good in Timbaland's production, now let's go to the bad. The title track's production is just too much with a bunch of effects and synth strings. Brandy does not need all of that stuff to have a good song. If it wasn't for her vocals, I wouldn't be feeling it. I Tried suffers from the same thing: too much production. From the sample to the strings and effects I heard from Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River". This time around Brandy's voice can't save the song. The song is not bad at all, but the production is too much. Sadiddy is nothing, but effects and his annoying beat-boxing. Brandy tries to gain street cred with this song. If it wasn't for the catchy hook and her outstanding vocals overlapping, I'd quickly press skip. Turn It Up is a back to the 90s party track and I can only listen to without getting annoyed after a while. It's those songs where you can listen to it only once a week.
Another flaw is that Brandy wrote only one friggin song on this album which is Finally. She wrote a good amount of tracks on her previous albums, but here it's like she got lazy and did what Ashlee Simpson do: tell the actual writers of what the song is suppose to be about and then let them write the lyrics. It's very disappointing when Who I Am discusses her marriage and Should I Go has her doubting the music industry & you find out she didn't write one lick of lyric.
The songs Timbaland didn't produce mostly are great. Necessary is a highlight with it's beat and guitar giving the song a seductive groove to it. The production is perfectly suited for Brandy and her vocals just shine. Same goes for How I Feel. The music is calming and the song overall just flows well. Say You Will is very smooth, but it's pretty forgettable.
I don't really know why Brandy choosed Timbaland to be her main producer cause some of his stuff is not suited for her. It's the main reason I had a hard time between giving it 3 or 4 stars. I settle for 4 cause the album is good and there is some great material here. You'd just have to get under all that production to really be convinced of that. I hope she gets back with Rodney Jerkins cause it's just more of her style in my opinion.
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