Brandy, 'Human'- Album Reviews at ChrisOnline.biz

Child-star and modern-day R and B superstar, Brandy Norwood releases her fifth studio album – but has the bubble burst?

‘Human’ is Brandy’s first release on new label, Epic, having split with Atlantic in 2005 – somewhat explaining the four-year delay between work. In terms of production, while Timbaland didn ’t make it, there are some heavyweight credits including Rodney Jenkins (Spice Girls, Whitney Houston) and RedOne (New Kids on the Block, Akon) and this influence is

Released - 5/12/08

Label - Epic

5th studio album

reflected in tracks such as ‘Piano Man’ which uses a very fashionable dance beat.

‘Piano Man’ is indeed backed up by a beat reminiscent of Usher’s ‘Love in This Club’ – a trick all R and B artists worth their salts are exploring these days. And it works very well, somewhat masking Norwood ’s voice into dance-orientated loops over an over-powering beat. First single, ‘Right Here (Departed) is again typically-produced contemporary soul with a booming beat ensconced over a piano-driven upbeat rhythm. The production compliments Brandy ’s soulful and powerful vocals and somewhat liberates them more so than on earlier work like ‘The Boy is Mine’ and ‘Sittin’ on Top of the World’. Clearly Brandy’s new label is playing to the songstress’s strengths.

The album features two interludes which feature Norwood emphasizing her thoughts on human existence and then detailing the problems of a long-distance relationship. The direction is mature (she is 29 now you know), but the result isn ’t anything outside of the genre’s box. ‘Long Distance’ is again about the toils of such a union and features another sec ret production weapon – the strings, which kick in towards the end. Given her absence from the charts and her somewhat topsy-turvy personal life, it ’s quite possible that Brandy was going for a distinguished and yet unspectacular comeback, which she has certainly achieved with this record – it’s not going to get many parties jumping.

‘Camouflage’ is a ballad which again plays to Brandy’s strengths in the emotional vocal department, ‘Torn Down’ also follows in this mould, with a little bit of production flair thrown in for playability. Fans of the singer certainly won ’t be disappointed with this effort, though fans of the music might be disappointed to see that whilst the lyrics sound so personal, Brandy herself is only responsible for two of them – title-track ‘Human’ and ender ‘Fall’, which also includes our own Natasha Bedingfield on the credits.

‘Human’ indeed is much-more mature-sounding than the other tracks wrote for her, and is a close-to-the-bone personal assessment, whilst appealing to the inevitable higher power. Stripped of all production tricks too, it ’s amazing how a piece of personal input can sound more real than a whole album of penned tracks, albeit decent ones. And that is the story of this album – modern R and B, a strong yet unspectacular return from a supremely-talented singer. 8/10 CM