On October 31st American singer Chris Brown released his brand new album “Heartbreak On A Full Moon” on RCA Records, it’s the artists 8th studio album. The double disc compilation contains a massive 45 songs, and comes just after the release of Brown’s music documentary “Welcome To My Life”. The star studded doco which featured appearances from the likes of DJ Khaled and Mary J Blige, compared Brown to Michael Jackson several times with in the first 20 minutes. The film starts out with Brown and his family reliving the shock of sudden celebrity status as a teen who came from nothing, but after a while, it takes a turn. Brown gives a scary step-by-step account of what happened in the car with Rihanna on the night of the 2009 VMAs, insisting that the two had a history of explosive scraps and that he’d been egged into this one, though he owns the guilt of the assault.
It seems loyal Chris Brown fans will continue to support the artist even through his darkest days, and it’s even more likely #TeamBreezy will keep the support going through his new 45 track album, which will have any die hard fan engaged for all three hours. Brown started work on this new LP a few weeks before releasing his seventh studio effort “Royalty” in 2015, and continued working on it in 2016 and 2017. Brown even built a studio in his home, where he could continuously work on the project, and in an interview with Complex he spoke about the new album stating “I thought “Heartbreak On a Full Moon” was a depiction of what my soul wanted to say. It’s funny because we’re not doing a double album. I’ve done so many records, but all of the records, to me, are personal favorites and I feel like it gets what I want to say across. It gives a vibe. You get nostalgia or you get a sense of individuality.”
The first single released for “Heartbreak On A Full Moon” was entitled “Grass Ain’t Greener” and was released on May 5th, 2016 and wasn’t originally included on the track list, but did make the cut when the album was available for pre-order. On December 16th, 2016 the official second single was released “Party” which featured artists Usher and Gucci Mane. Then on March 24th, 2017 Chris Brown released the official third single “Privacy” which was produced by D.A. Doman. The songs on “Heartbreak On A Full Moon” are neither amateurishly produced or unlistenable. Many of the songs are quite catchy, and have plenty of hooks, and occasionally auto tuned vocals. The album almost sounds like a motion picture length string of invitations for sex and manages to bring the subject up in at least half of the album.
When Chris Brown stops fixating on sex in hallways, drunken hookups, and girls who mix cocaine and painkillers, “Heartbreak On A Full Moon” starts to open up and gather some true meaning. “Hurt The Same” begins a stream of break up songs that put the singers voice to good use. But for me I still think Brown is better suited to his chart reflecting EDM bangers and party anthems we’ve heard him so often effortlessly nail. We do get to hear some of this on tracks like “Frustrated” but on the majority of faster paced songs we hear the slight mix of EDM crossed with pop, which is a usual sound for Brown to deliver. For most double albums that have been released in the past, normally come with a year of giant success, but already at the beginning of this albums journey we have already seen six singles fall quickly out of the top 40. Which is a shame because there are at least a good 50-60 minutes worth of great music on “Heartbreak…”, and a proof that Brown still can rattle off a good hook in his sleep.
When Chris Brown spoke of the album he said there were elements of dance, pop and R&B. “For me I think about everything that I went through. Whether it be certain substance songs that I feel lack in our genre of music. Even real songs.” Chris said “With this album I wanted to capture all basis of who my audience liked. What songs they could actually identify with so more R&B my girl fans love it, they gone have it. More pop you going to have it, but it still gon’ by my essence, and me not trying to culture vulture or take anybodies style, more of the album that you see is singles now, is more of the collabs. When you listen to the albums its more in depth about me. So you get 40 songs, so I wanted to show people that ‘hey man why cant we all push ourselves to make 45 bangers’”.
For any fan of Brown’s music, will no doubt be a fan of this 45 track ensemble, but don’t expect the chart topping bangers you’ve heard previously that producer Nic Nac gave us that topped the charts, instead you’ll have to settle for an album that’ll have you jammin along but won’t be commercially blasting out of your local radio stations. Me for one am okay with that, because if you’re a fan of good music then you’ll appreciate this album for what it is. “Heartbreak On A Full Moon” is out now.
Rating: 4 / 5
“Heartbreak On A Full Moon” tracklist:
1. Lost & Found
2. Privacy
3. Juicy Booty (feat. Jhene Aiko and R. Kelly)
4. Questions
5. Heartbreak on a Full Moon
6. Roses
7. Confidence
8. Rock Your Body
9. Tempo
10. Handle It (feat. Dej Loaf and Lil Yatchy)
11. Sip
12. Everybody Knows
13. To My Bed
14. Hope You Do
15. This Ain’t
16. Pull Up
17. Party (feat. Usher and Gucci Mane)
18. Sensei
19. Summer Breeze
20. No Exit
21. Pills & Automobiles (feat. Yo Gotti, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Kodak Black)
23. I Love Her
24. You Like
25. Nowhere
26. Otha Niggas
27. Tough Love
28. Paradise
29. Covered In You
30. Even
31. High End (feat. Future and Young Thug)
32. On Me
33. Tell Me What To Do
34. Frustrated
35. Enemy
36. If You’re Down
37. Bite My Tongue
38. Run Away
39. This Way
40. Yellow Tape
41. Reddi Wip
42. Hangover (Unreleased)
43. Emotions
44. Only 4 Me
45. Grass Ain’t Greener
