lördag 1 Dec 2007, 15:10

Jenny from the block is back! After lacklustre sales from 2006's 'Rebirth' expectations are high for her newest English language album.
'Brave' is exactly what you would expect of a J.Lo album, a mix of urban club tracks, mid tempo tracks and ballads, nothing boundary pushing, yet still listenable.
Album opener 'Stay Together' has a beat Amerie would kill for whilst lyrically saying how 'staying together is the new trend', could this be Jenny doing humour? The track is good, in fact as is the rest of the album. Mrs Lopez has enlisted a great team of writers and producers to make this album a whole lot better than her previous studio efforts, producers such as The Clutch, JR Rotem and Bloodshy And Avant all have appearances.
Lead single 'Do It Well' was certainly a "brave" lead single choice since there are others on this record which could've set this album up so much better, perhaps try 'Hold It Don't Drop It' or 'Stay Together'. At times the album has it's paler moments with tracks such as 'Never Gonna Give Up' (a ballad that doesn't get interesting until around halfway through the track) and 'I Need Love', 'Be Mine', which i found were just inane urban/pop fillers. However when the record is good, it's good, tracks such as 'Mile In These Shoes' which has Jenny singing about how no-one knows what it's like to be her (think Jenny From The Block only a LOT better) and the album closer 'Brave' with it's marching Bloodshy And Avant beat with Jen's softer vocals over the chorus.
Standout tracks include the Keri Hilson written 'Wrong When You're Gone', which is this albums 'We Belong Together'.
The record is good and an improvement over 'Rebirth' since it misses the slushy mid tempo ballads with some rent-a-rapper ('All I Have') however it doesn't really seem to have the one BIG single that the album needed, perhaps that's why it entered at a disappoint no.12 on the US billboard charts, either way it's a good record, perhaps the Jennifer Lopez record we've been waiting for, for a while.

8/10

If you liked this try:

Britney Spears- 'Blackout'
Brandy- 'Afrodisiac'
Amerie- 'Because I Love It'