Let there be no further material from that guy, music industry…
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[4.33]
Anthony Easton: This was not the Brandy comeback I was expecting, and it’s really kind of out of date — like reading this late ’90s Toure article on Kanye, where he talks about speeding up old soul samples and wanting to make sure they aren’t sped up enough to sound like a chipmunk. But there are no soul samples here, and no one really cares if Brown sounds like a chipmunk. Even his falsetto, which was his previously most significant gift, just seems lost in a production of failed beats and hidden signs.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Is that a title or a plea from the SWAT team? The higher register promises lightness, but the staggering beat hits the floor like the sad trombone. Brown’s contribution is surprisingly angry; inexplicably, he’s been recruited just for his rapping. But even more inexplicably, I suspect he’s really just here for the name value.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Chris Brown’s presence is mere industry procedure; if this had been recorded a month later and positioned slightly different, he’d be 2 Chainz. The sheer anonymity is also, unfortunately, standard; luckily, we can just pretend it funded “Wildest Dreams.”
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: The version floating around without Chris Brown on it is ethically superior, I guess, but structurally inferior. Not that structure is everything, of course.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Brown is an annoyance easy to tune out, but I can’t figure out why Brandy wanted a part of this pneumatic pseudo-exuberance. The stuttering effects and samples aren’t even well programmed.
[3]
Will Adams: Those synth stabs are doing 80% of the work here; they’re the only tonal component apart from the vocals, and they outline an interesting chord progression. Brandy, on the other hand, is content to perform adequately, and Chris Brown is fine with sounding like Nicki Minaj without a modicum of personality. Lovely chorus, though.
[5]