X by Chris Brown
Over two years in the making, a period that involved a multitude of revisions and delays, anger management therapy, drug rehabilitation, and a jail stay for parole violation, X surfaced as Chris Brown's sixth full-length studio release in September 2014. In a way, the album is a corrective. The influence of European dance-pop, which resulted in some of Brown's most forgettable material on Fortune, is all but eliminated in favor of contemporary R&B and pop productions that tend to suit the singer better. Brown does maintain his bad boy image. It's on typically full display in the chintzy "Loyal" -- its hook a misogynist pleonasm -- and the part-clever/part-nonsensical string of R. Kelly quotes that is the Trey Songz duet "Songs on 12 Play" ("And I'm feelin' on yo booty, drivin' me crazy, half on a baby"). On "Drown on It," the pied piper of R&B himself joins in, and he and Brown dole out an unsurprisingly cartoonish variety of metaphorical and/or explicit come-ons that include "Just like a male mermaid, baby." Brown combines memorable hooks with some stellar production work on the rubbery disco-funk of "Add Me In" (courtesy of Danja) and the blithe, swaying "Time for Love" (a collaboration with Jean Baptiste and Free School). In these and a few other songs, romantic affection, expressed with seemingly genuine sweetness, takes precedence over sexual aggression and petulance. More importantly, Brown's voice, still boyish, sounds most natural and full of life in these settings. Additional guest appearances come from Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Usher, Tyga, Akon, and Kendrick Lamar, but Brown's lone spot reserved for a woman is his best collaboration here. On the darker but no less striking "Do Better," he and Brandy continue a fruitful association that previously resulted in the Top Five R&B hit "Put It Down" and the phenomenal Two Eleven album cut "Slower." It's one of the more compelling R&B duets of its time, with their vulnerable confessions as sharp as their aspersions.
There's a deceptive depth to the title of Chris Brown's sixth studio album, <i>X</i>. Explaining the name in a 2013 interview, he cited the decade he'd spent in the music business, an intricate numerology related to his upcoming 24th birthday, and the way "ex" connotes progress. X is also a concise way to say he's done a lot and he'll do more. The 2014 album and its expanded edition attest to that, blending all his hit-making tools with pristine curatorial savvy and the most emotionally transparent songwriting of his career. Beginning with the titular opener, C. Breezy jumps into reflection and dance-floor thrills, lacing a pulsing Diplo-produced EDM beat with an emphatic declaration: "I ain't going back no more." Paired with the frenetic instrumental, it's the sound of catharsis. He's learned from his years of turmoil, he wants us to know. If the title track is an escape powered by reflection, the Akon-assisted "Came To Do" is a lust-powered release, and "New Flame", with assists from Rick Ross and Usher, captures the bliss of new affection. Meanwhile, "Loyal" is a frank lesson on proper etiquette for unfaithful ladies. With candy-coated West Coast synths, an anthemic hook and quippy playboy bars from Tyga and Lil Wayne, it's a pantheon Breezy anthem. While he dives into disco, EDM and hip-hop, he's just as comfortable in ambient R&B—and his feelings. On "Autumn Leaves", he wades through dazed strings as he remembers a past love, with Kendrick Lamar serving up an alien flow that adds colourful discordance to the affair. For the expanded edition, Breezy dips further into his emotions for a posthumous collaboration with Aaliyah ("Don't Think They Know"), actualising what was a theoretical dream team with a spacy sound bed and a hook that emits romantic paranoia. On a more upbeat note, he teams with Nicki Minaj for a buoyant bedroom soundtrack, this one grafted onto a jittery beat designed for the dance floor. Linking with an R&B queen from the past and a rap queen of the present feels like symbolic connective tissue for <i>X</i>, but it's not some overwrought metaphor; it's just the access afforded by dominance. Like the album, the two collabs are a reminder of how he got here—and why he'll never leave.
