Since Chris Brown’s debut, things have been looking up for the young singer. He “ran it, ran it” from Tappahannock, Virginia, to the walls of adoring girls.
Brown’s latest effort, Exclusive, is a producers’ record, to be certain. It is bursting at the seams with top names like The Underdogs and Stargate behind the knobs. Even the album’s guests are impressive; songs feature Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Will.I.Am. And, of course, it boasts a duet by guest-du-jour T-Payne.
It seems almost impossible for an album this chock-full of star power to be poorly received (“Kiss Kiss,” the first single, has already had weeks of overplayed airtime).
Every song sounds relatively the same. And each tune has the potential to become one of those dreaded, unavoidable hyper-smash hits that leave an indelible mark on our collective unconscious (i.e. “Crazy,” “Crank Dat”).
For all of its Top-40 conventionality, Brown’s latest effort is not entirely forgettable. Chris Brown shows, with each successive track, that his spot as one of R’B’s most dynamic forces is well-justified. His upper-register warble wriggles through a non-stop flood of sure-fire hits.
Although it’s not quite a banger, the most head-turning track is “With You.” At first blush, it sounds like a mall-pop R’B throwaway fused with the worst Plain White T’s B-side never recorded. But something interesting lies beneath the veneer. With Chris Brown crooning on a loop of four acoustic chords, he isn’t just walking on eggshells – he’s stomping and dancing on them with Nike Dunks. But it holds up somehow. This proves, if nothing else, Chris Brown has the versatility drive young girls crazy with the best of ’em.