Last Tuesday, Chris Brown’s album F.A.M.E, an acronym for Forgiving All My Enemies, dropped.
I must admit that I was pleasantly and shockingly surprised by how good his album was, considering how “Graffiti” was a hit and miss. No pun intended.
With “Deuces,” the extremely popular break-up/diss song starting out the album, I could tell this one was going to be one to remember.
F.A.M.E shows how Brown has matured over the course of his musical career. His sound has totally eclipsed trom the time of his, according to my boyfriend, “bubble-gum” music to his now raunchy Trey Songz-esque lyrics (for more information on “raunchy” please refer to “No B.S.,” “Wet the Bed” and “Beg For It”; Brown expresses how he feelsabout the female anatomy…among other things.)
Brown pulls all the stops by having collaborations with Tyga, Kevin McCall, Busta Rhymes and yes, even Justin-freaking-Bieber, just to point out a few.
However, I do have a major issue with one song on this album. With the good comes the bad, questionable and, in this case, the overused. By that I am referring to the song “She Ain’t You.” We all know and love Michael Jackson’s Human Nature. We all know and love SWV’s mix of Human Nature in their mega-popular hit “Right Here.” But I don’t think we will all get down with Brown’s version. He basically used the SWV mix and sang to it. Once you hear this song you will instantly want to sing the lyrics to “Right Here.” It’s true. I actually did at one point to prove my point to my cousin who wouldn’t believe me before I played it for her. With some random chick in the background doing, or rather trying to do but failing miserably, Michael Jackson’s background vocals. I honestly wanted old girl to shut up after her first attempt, but that obviously did not happen. For this song I give him and his back-up singer a major side-eye.
Even so, F.A.M.E has a plethora of other songs that appeal to the ear of the listener. “Look At Me Now” is what’s bumping on the radio and the catchy beat and lyrics draw you in to make you want to turn up the volume in your car and “ride out.” And as always, he has songs that remind you of his “bubble-gum” music days. In the song “Should’ve Kissed You” he sings ” I should’ve kissed you, I should’ve told you, told you just how I feel…Cause what I feel is real.” To put it simply: classic Chris Brown. He tells us what we (as in us ladies) all want to hear from out significant others.
For this album, which is now number one, Chris Brown redeems himself and proves that he still has what it takes to create great music that gives listeners what they want to hear.
Brown delivers with good music, good lyrics and good beats that will make the masses want to blast it in their cars or on their iPods, or think about that special someone who “makes their toes curl.”