:: Brandy - Human

Brandy

Brandy’s new album “Human” is pictured adjacent the dictionary definition of ‘cliché’ in Oxford's 2009 edition. It reeks of the 1990’s r&b vibe, so fabulous 10 years ago - now stale and done to absolute death. Further to this Brandys’ voice - which is actually decent from live performances I have seen – has been butchered with synths and voice enhancement a la Britney Spears. Lyrically, it comes off as meaningless, reworked, done before and…have I mentioned clichéd? Producer “Darkchild” who has worked with the likes of Destiny’s Child was the hand with the pen for all of these tracks. (Credit to Brandy on a few. Putting your hand up and saying “Hey, let’s put another ‘Yeah’ in after the first chorus!” apparently counts.) “Right here (departed)” is catchy, but the lyrics – I just can’t get past them; “The walls are closing in - but I’ll be breaking through… When the clouds have all departed – You’ll be right here with me.” Come. On. ”Long distance”, a tale of - surprise!– a long distance relationship, evokes Mariah Carey on an average day, a nice song and the best effort from Brandy on this 13-song-two-interlude flat-fest. Far from the hype of her “The boy is mine” duet with Monica, this album doesn’t feel like it has anything but 10% of Brandy’s voice on it.