Is He Back?

3.5 stars (out of 5)

Graffiti, Chris Brown's 2009 disc, was a commercial and creative dud; there really are no two ways around that. So my expectations for this new album, F.A.M.E. which arrives in stores in the US today, were decidedly low. Brown isn't one of those artistes I bought into when he first burst onto the scene with hit single "Run It!" (his voice was way too nasal for my liking) and to be honest, i'm still far from his biggest fan. So imagine my surprise having listened to the album and actually liking it.
Following his break-up with Rihanna, Brown got real famous, real fast. We all know why, so no need for me to re-hash all that mess. I've read far too many reviews online that spent way too many words on his personal life than the actual music on the album, and to call that a little distasteful would be an understatement. No, i'm not excusing him of anything, but there really should come a time when we can judge or consider something on its own merits, namely an album or body of work. Furthermore, while Graffiti was ill-advised, containing way too many uncomfortable quasi-apologies, hence possibly justifying the need to mention his personal troubles for which he was apologizing, F.A.M.E. seeks to re-establish Brown as the R&B star and hit-maker he once was. Having gone to the top of the R&B charts with "Deuces," first track here and first released from his 2010 Fan of a Fan mixtape, it seems he may finally be getting back on track where that is concerned. Which brings me to the album...
I admit the title is kinda dubious, (the acronym stands for "Forgiving All My Enemies" *eyeroll*) positing Brown as the victim of who knows? Media assault? Radio backlash? *shrugs* But really, even I have to admit that the music inside is pretty good and deserves to be heard. With everything from Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne collaborations to production from dance stalwart Benny Bennassi, the 13-track album (if you buy the standard issue) really has something for most everybody.
The album starts with "Deuces," and really, I don't need to even describe the track- playing seemingly everywhere, (car stereos, radio, the clubs) everybody's heard it. I have to say this though- I wasn't a big fan of the song when it first came out. Now, I can't really remember or even explain why, but really, it was a good move of Brown to include it on the album- most people who may have written him off at the time of release probably didn't stop to actually consider it the good song it is. The laid back R&B vibe continues through-out "Up 2 You" and another track that was included on his Fan of a Fan mixtape, "No Bullshit." They're far from the best songs on the album, but at least Brown's voice sounds good.
Album stand-out "Look at Me Now," while most critics have written it off as the bragging track it really is, with its space-y, minimal bleeps courtesy of Diplo, is a winner. The beat eats! Chris tries his hand at rapping, but um... The REAL reason to hear this song is Busta Rhymes- dude is a beast! Maybe this should have been his song... My fave song on the album comes next, "She Aint You" with its deft Michael Jackson ("Human Nature") by way of SWV ("Right Here") sample- "When she touches me," Brown sings, "I'm wishing they were your hands." Hmmmm... I wonder who he's singing about... (Yea right!)
"Say It With Me," another album stand-out, is one of those club songs Brown does well. Produced by H Money, the beat pounds and pounds so awesomely, it would be futile to resist. Put simply, it would be a terrific track to be heard pumping out of some massive club speakers.
"Yeah 3x" is next, and really is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the current electro/Euro-dance trend, not that that's a bad thing. With its big, heavy synths and video-game type beats, it's a feel-good track, one akin to one of his own singles, "Forever" from 2008. Having produced "Crawl," (one of the few good songs on Graffiti) The Messengers are back with "Next 2 You" featuring Justin Bieber. It's an ok song, nothing really brilliant, and the production is crisp, but the song that is more in the vein of "Crawl" would be the next song, "All Back." Put simply, it's absolutely beautiful- "You never miss a good thing till it's gone, and now I want it all back." Having been in love a few times with relationships come tumbling down around me, I can relate so much to this song. The arrangement, besides Brown's plaintive vocal delivery, is what really resonates with me most of all. In fact, as an instrumental track, it would be perfect as it is; Chris' vocals are just icing.
Featuring Ludacris, "Wet the Bed" with its drip-drops and background guitars, (not to mention sexual content) reminds me of a song R. Kelly would do. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, (I think it would depend on your personal taste or how much of a prude you are) but maybe he should have left this type of track to a lesser like Trey Songz. Just saying. At least Ludacris adds a little humour to the whole proceedings name-dropping Toni Braxton and Sammy Sosa along the way. As soon as he's done with his verse though, just skip ahead to "Oh My Love." It's another track that features Brown rapping, but this one is a bit more effective than his attempt on "Look at Me Now." The beat is sickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!! Brown is an awesome dancer, so i'm sure he would go AWF to this live, I can just see him crumping his ass off already!
If you have the standard issue, the album ends on the shimmering "Beautiful People." Featuring and produced by the afore-mentioned Benny Bennassi, the song sounds like something left off of Kelis' Flesh Tone- it's THAT good! Reportedly, it's the next single, and one would think that's a pretty good move; he may have a giant pop/dance/club hit on his hands.
As for me? I want the deluxe issue. Why? Three of the tracks here- "Bomb" feat. Wiz Khalifa; "Rock, Scissors, Paper," produced by and feat. Timbaland; and "Love Them Girls" feat. The Game, produced by Polow da Don- are really good. They're all hip-hop/club tracks, but i'll be damned if they aren't three of the best songs on here.
Ok, so the album's done and I didn't write a bad review of it, but even I can't sit here and pretend it's a perfect album as good as it is. With Chris throwing his hats in so many different circles, (R&B, pop, hip-hop, dance) the album's cohesion suffers, and with too many sappy R&B songs, the album is bogged down. But, I have to quickly add that even if you wanna ignore what he's singing for more of the album it still remains good because the production is top-notch right through-out, and in all honesty, that's what saves the album from being merely OK.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned

Being one of music's biggest artistes is certainly not easy; even your worst, most personal moments are played out in front of millions like a summer blockbuster with everyone watching having an opinion. Michael Jackson knows this. So too Whitney Houston and more recently, R. Kelly. This past February, Rihanna, the Barbadian beauty, got first-hand knowledge of this, as shortly after a domestic altercation with then-boyfriend, fellow R&B superstar, Chris Brown, a photo of her all bloodied and bruised leaked to the world. It was a shocking moment, and in recent interviews Rihanna herself has stated it was an embarrassing one for her. The relationship itself ended, Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault in July, whereas Rihanna decided to make music as a form of therapy to deal with all that time she was hiding from the flashes of the paparazzi.
The results of the sessions have morphed into her fourth album, Rated R. On the cover, she poses like a 21st century version of danceclub maverick (and obvious fashion icon influence) Grace Jones; she's not to be messed with even as it seems she's nursing a wound to her right eye.
Beginning with the monologue, "The Mad House", intoned by a sinister-sounding voice a la Michael Jackson's "Thriller", the listener is asked to come in, come in if they're not easily frightened. It sounds a little ridiculous, almost camp; an introduction to a haunted house ride. The subject matter that follows though, is no joke.
"Wait Your Turn" sets the dark, violent tone of the album with its opening line "I pitch with a grenade/Swing away if you're feeling brave." Produced by London dub step duo Chase and Status, the song is all tough talk with Rihanna's eyes set firmly on those dying for their 15 minutes of fame - "It's just the way the game is played, it's best that you just wait your turn" she nastily taunts repeatedly.
"G4L" has Rihanna again being defensive with lines like "Guns in the air, guns in the air/Can't hurt us again when you come around here," but it's the opening salvo that should have eyebrows arched- "I lick the gun when i'm done cuz I know that revenge is sweet." It's not a threat so much as a tough-girl stance, a role Rihanna has employed to tell a story. Produced also by Chase and Status, the song is stark and eerie, and at turns heart-breaking not in Rihanna's transparency as gangster, but in her need to protect herself from future attacks.
Rihanna's voice is a delicate instrument, (in most live performances, it's obvious she hasn't learned to master it just yet) leading some to the conclusion that she isn't a remarkable singer. And while this may be true, current single "Russian Roulette", co-written by go-to-man Ne-Yo, proves that with concentration on pitch and control, her voice is at least capable of conveying emotion. As the first single from the disc, it was a gutsy move on the part of Rihanna's team; comparing a relationship to a potentially fatal game of chance, the song is haunting and epic, with the singer placed squarely in the middle of some sparse guitar, some hesitant gasps, what sounds like her heartbeat and the spinning cylinder of a gun. Her reading of the story is dramatic and expertly controlled, and when the song ends with an audible shiver and a gunshot, the listener feels like something irrevocable has happened.
The narrator of these songs refuses to to play the victim. Rihanna is wary of men even when she openly flirts with them. In "Rude Boy" co-written by Ester Dean, one of the only female collaborators on the album, (who ironically features Chris Brown on her recent single "Drop It Low") Rihanna taunts "Come here rude boy, can you give it up? Come here rude boy, is you big enough?" The song hearkens back to her Good Girl Gone Bad days in its danceability, and admittedly, it's one of the lighter moments on the disc, filler if you must, on an album with such powerful emotional heft. There are a few of these detached moments on Rated R that seek to add diversity to the album's sound.
In the same way the music has lost much of its ingratiating, if innocuous airiness, she has added more pronounced and spiky rock guitars referencing both goth rock and new wave at turns. "Rockstar 101" featuring guitar hero Slash of Guns N' Roses has Rihanna posing touch again, this time more convincingly, daring all to gape and gawk as she holds her "middle finger up." Smartly written by The-Dream, the song has the singer reveling, rather brashly, in her status as a "six-inch walker, big sh*t talker." It's deliciously catty, and who can blame her; she has some of the most exclusive designers and fashion houses the world over at her every beck and call.
The bragging continues on second single "Hard" featuring rapper Young Jeezy, "I live where the sky ends... my runway never looked so clear" she sings in her most deadpan delivery. She offhandedly lists her accomplishments "...brilliant, resilient, fan mail from 27 million" calling herself the "hottest bitch in heels right here." Over The-Dream and Tricky Stewart's clanking, surging beat, she sounds bigger and more ferocious than ever before warning whoever that she's not willing to just throw away all she's worked hard for.
It's rarely discussed that the Bajan native is perhaps the biggest thing this region has produced in recent years surpassing Ricky Martin, Shaggy and even Sean Paul. With 12 top ten hits so far, (the second highest amount by any artiste this decade) Rihanna has been openly welcomed in any field she's ventured into. For a female artiste to represent a Caribbean aesthetic on a worldwide level is curious, especially when Caribbean music has always been so male-dominated. It's even more curious when said artiste has never been the purveyor of salsa, meringue, dancehall or any of the music we are used to here. "Te Amo", the only song that comes closest to an island-flavour, recounts, quite smartly, a tryst on the dancefloor with another woman. In her thickest accent, Rihanna sings, "Then she said 'te amo' then she put her hand around me waist." It's a desire she understands but never reciprocates. Both recalling "La Isla Bonita"-era Madonna and European techno, Stargate's production makes the song absolutely enchanting.
The album is most haunting when vulnerability on the part of Rihanna is allowed to peak through the tougher exterior, like on Ne-Yo's second contribution to the album, the devastating "Stupid in Love", a rueful R&B number with an undulating piano line where the narrator berates herself for being duped by a suitor with blood on his hands. Produced by Brian Kennedy who also helmed her "Disturbia", "Fire Bomb" is violent in its metaphors- "Can't wait to see your face when your front windows break and I come crashing through," but seems apt in the telling of a relationship going down the drain; "The lovers need to clear the road, cuz this thing is ready to blow/I just wanna set you on fire so I won't have to burn alone..." Likewise on the penultimate track, the elegiac "Cold Case Love", produced and written by Justin Timberlake, the song may be the only one that out rightly addresses the events that dissolved the relationship with Brown- "What you did to me was a crime, cold case love/And I let you reach me one more time, but that's enough." It's the most emotional moment of the opus with Rihanna contemplating "prints, pictures and white outlines" all "left on the scene of the crime." Timberlake has the good sense to keep his vocal print off the record, it's Rihanna's story to tell after all, but provides everything else- haunting strings, Timbaland-esque beatbox, pounding drums... At over 6 minutes, the song is slow-boiling, but what a glorious release.
Rihanna has largely been touted as a singles artiste, which seems to be fine in today's ringtone generation. But there comes a time when an artiste needs to grow up. Having worked with the same slew of hitmakers as she did for Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna could have easily thwacked out another album full of chart-toppers, but one gets the sense that that wasn't the route Ms. Fenty was willing to take. At turns tough, brash, violent, vulnerable and brave, Rihanna's Rated R not only stands as her personal best album, but also one of mainstream music's best records this year; a look into the soul of a girl having had to evaluate her life after being battered, when all she wanted was to be loved. The world wanted hits, but we got so much more- a look at the living, breathing person behind the grand machine.