Album Highlight Of The Week

Chris Brown "F.A.M.E." Rating: 9/10

So this rating may be a little biased seeing how I'm a huge fan of Chris Brown's music and the team that Jive/Zomba Records has put behind this phenomenal artist and entertainer, but writers from other critically acclaimed music review sites, such as Rolling Stone, MTV, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today, have all shared in my enthusiasm over Brown's fourth CD release.

The album features RnB, Hip-Hop and dance music and allows fans of this young artists, who have been in his corner from the beginning, to hear the stark difference and gradual maturity in his song choices and vocal ability. His current radio singles “Yeah 3x” and “Look At Me Now” are currently in the top 20 songs falling at 15 and 1 respectively.

Despite his tainted image from a domestic assault incident in 2008 involving his, then girlfriend, Rhianna, Brown’s career has show resiliency. He served multiple hours of community service for the crime and has since apologized to his fans, Rhianna and the rest of the world who had their eyes on this young music superstar.

F.A.M.E., being his first album released post-incident has received some backlash from a few reviewers who feel that Brown expresses no remorse with songs entitled “Beg For It”, “Wet The Bed”, and “No B******t”. They feel that this album might alienate his current fan base that may also be fans of Rhianna’s music. But seeing how he has paid the price for the crime that he committed, I feel that it is time to move on and let the young man do what he does best…Sing!

For more information on Chris Brown click here.

Album Highlight of the Week

Marsha Ambrosius "Late Nights & Early Mornings" rating: 8/10

It’s been about five very long years (2006) since RnB/Soul duo Floetry have put out their last music as a group., but on March 1^st, 2011 fans were blessed with the release of Marsha Ambrosius’ solo album, “Late Nights & Early Mornings”. This long awaited album takes listeners on a journey through Marsha’s experiences with what she calls in an interview with the LA Times, “the growing pains of everything” in her personal life and in the music industry as a whole.  As one half of the highly acclaimed duo, Floetry, Ambrosius was reluctant to release a solo project for fears that it would not be as successful as the Floetry projects.

Her first single off of the album, “Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)” peaked at number 22 on Billboards US R&B Chart and her second single “Far Away” currently rests in the number 8 spot on the same chart. Part of her success with this latest solo album endeavor can be attributed to her long songwriting history which includes writing “Butterflies” for Michael Jackson’s Invincible album back in 2001.

After listening to the album, I would say that it is a must have for any R&B/Soul fan. Although I feel that Marsha has taken the conservative route of R&B songwriting with this album, I still believe that it can go toe to toe with any of the albums that have been released within the last three years. Gone have been the days of music that came straight from the soul and spoke on issues that we go through all the time. “The Songstress” (As she was known in Floetry) has definitely broken the plane of top singers in the music industry with her solo album and I look forward to hearing future products from this seasoned veteran in the future.