Album Review: Chris Brown - Indigo
Just like Chris Brown’s previous album, Heartbreak on a Full Moon, here goes another two hours. Brown delivers another huge variety of tracks for Team Breezy and fans-alike to pick through in his ninth solo effort.
Chris’ ability to touch on multiple genres such as dancehall (“Lurkin’”), EDM (“Temporary Lover,” “Take a Risk”), hip-hop (“Need a Stack,” “Wobble Up”) and R&B (“Come Together,” “Don’t Check on Me,” “Girl of My Dreams”) leaves no audience behind as he aims to please.
As the title track sets the album’s expected vibe and ends, we are now locked in the ride that is Indigo.
Chris and H.E.R. team up as they provide soulful vocals on the duet “Come Together.” Tyga serves a solid verse as he reconnects with Breezy (“All I Want”). Justin Bieber comes back with a new feature as he croons over the acoustic guitar (“Don’t Check on Me”). Drake and Brown reconcile and ended many years of hatred to create “No Guidance.” Chris provides a good amount of solo performances such as a proper percussion sample use of Clipse’s “Grindin’” on “Sorry Enough,” an emotional Breezy on “Red,” and the introspective “All on Me.”
Although there are gems in this project, there are some lackluster tracks that will have you pressing the skip button. “Emerald” has Chris expressing his desire to a mystery woman that he would want to be his potential lover. Mid-point of the song, Juvenile and Juicy J come in to lay down verses that were underwhelming to the song’s theme. Juvenile’s verse about throwing money would have been placed better on “Need a Stack” & Juicy J delivers a verse that could have been cut.
The Nicki Minaj and G-Eazy assisted dance song, "Wobble Up," contains cringe-worthy lines ("If my d*ck out, then you better start suckin' or somethin’," "I don't pay for p***y (Huh), they should be payin' me"). I imagine he hit the studio with an overly-sexual mindset and freestyled these lyrics because these were not well-thought-out.
The sex-driven, “Sexy,” reunites Breezy with fellow Virginia crooner, Trey Songz, to do what they do best together and deliver the nastiness on a track. A follow-up to their previous outing, “Chi Chi,” but "Sexy" can ultimately be forgotten. “Cheetah” is reminiscent of Heartbreak on a Full Moon’s “You Like,” and displays the running joke of Brown’s music always sounding the same.
With the vast amount of talent Chris possesses and his impeccable work ethic, I dislike having to view this work as nothing but a commercial playlist. He is not a stranger to releasing projects with a large number of songs, (Before the Party [mixtape], Heartbreak on a Full Moon). As a fan, Chris giving this much material is amazing because it will hold us for a while until his next drop. It would be great to see Breezy focus on creating a solely R&B album instead of testing every genre in all albums/mixtapes.
Overall, Chris’ issue is the lack of consistency when it comes to creating a solid album. He is a hit-maker without an album we can mention as his classic. Whether it’s song sequencing, song writing, production, or number of tracks; Brown is currently more focused on boosting his digital streaming numbers than delivering a proper album. We can only wait to see if he changes the delivery of future albums or will he just continue with what is working for him.