BROWN

<b>Twenty-one years and 12 albums after his first single, <i>BROWN</i> consciously situates the hitmaker in a long line of R&B’s greats.</b> “I found peace when I stopped explaining my legacy,” Chris Brown sings over a soulful Metro Boomin beat on <b>“Leave Me Alone”</b>, the opening track of <i>BROWN</i>. Instead, the 37-year-old singer lets the cover art speak for itself: Reclining pensively in a retro suit and fedora, he poses in a gesture to classic album covers from Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross and Michael Jackson’s <i>Thriller</i>. Twenty-one years and 12 albums after his first single, 2005’s “Run It!”, made him the first male solo artist to have a debut single top the Hot 100 since Montell Jordan a decade before, <i>BROWN</i> consciously situates the hitmaker in a long line of R&B’s greats, if you couldn’t tell from the trailer that styled Brown and friends as ’60s crooners under a marquee promising “A NIGHT OF SOUL: R&B & TIMELESS CLASSICS”. Of the 27 songs on <i>BROWN</i>’s star-studded tracklist, a handful nod to the nostalgic theme: <b>“Holy Blindfold”</b> gives gospel R&B with a hint of <i>Pure Moods</i>, while <b>“Fallin’”</b> recruits Leon Thomas for a smoky blues number with a music video straight out of <i>Sinners</i>. The remainder harkens to the sound of R&B from the time of Brown’s debut: baby-making music for the bedroom and the club, laser-focused on the subjects of love and sex. Among the list of collaborators are luminaries from the genre’s past and present, from Tank on <b>“#BODYGOALS”</b> to Bryson Tiller on the horny but heartfelt <b>“It Depends”</b>, which samples USHER’s 1997 hit “Nice & Slow”. YoungBoy Never Broke Again gets romantic on <b>“Red Rum”</b>, and Sexyy Red and GloRilla add a touch of grit to the Memphis-inspired <b>“Call Your Name”</b>.