At the ripe old age of 23, there's little Brandy Norwood hasn't achieved.
But nine years into her career as sugary teen diva (she was signed at 14),
the photogenic warbler from McComb, Mississippi, appears to be experiencing
a premature mid-life crisis.
In the four years since her last album, 'Never Say Never', the face
of modern urban pop has been radically altered, though their innovative work seems to have
gone largely unheard in the thinktank which engineered this velvet-lined
bucket of slush.
Only production colossus Rodney Jerkins emerges with crediblity barely
Intact. His chief contribution, the single 'What About Us?', is a slippery,
twitching slab of computer funk that thrusts Brandy, fleetingly, into the
21st century. Elsewhere, Brandy is on fine form throughout, purring pillow talk and
murmuring sweet nothings to anyone insane enough to listen. Now she loves
him, now she doesn't. Really, it's too much.
Piers Martin
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