Music Vault Wednesdays: Brandy

[ColdAsFire88]

I want to start a weekly music thread that focuses on Artists and their legacies. I have been thinking about this for a while, but I wasn’t sure how it would be executed and received. You can think of these as a #Justice4 but less album or song focused and more artist + legacy focused. I will throw in an album that is overlooked that has gems for folks to check out. Let me know what your thoughts are on Music Vault Wednesdays.

With that said, my love for music goes deep and someone that I don’t listen to enough that I used to get down to A LOT in the 90’s needs to be talked about. Since we are coming off this artist’s recent Verzuz episode and she just released her seventh studio album B7, so I want to focus on the R&B legend: Brandy. 

I remember being a kid and finding Brandy’s first self-titled CD Brandy in my Aunts’ room. She caught me dancing to Baby and laughed at me then let me keep it. If Brandy’s song I Wanna Be Down doesn’t get you in the mood then I have to question your taste in “get down” music. Brandy’s self-titled debut earned her rave reviews and two Grammy nominations. After her debut she contributed to the iconic Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack and dropped the vibey Sittin Up In My Room which became a favorite to listen to while I day dreamed on my top bunk. 

Brandy went on to star in her own sitcom Moesha which ran for six consecutive seasons. She was even handpicked to be the first black Cinderella and starred with The Legendary Whitney Houston who played her Fairy Godmother. After Moesha wrapped up and the premier of Cinderella fizzled, Brandy dropped her second studio album Never Say Never which consisted of one of the most iconic singles to date The Boy is Mine a duet with Monica and Have You Ever. The Boy is Mine hit number one and stayed there for thirteen weeks. The crazy thing is that Brandy and Monica performed this song once and then one more time years later. 

In 2002 Brandy dropped her third album Full Moon which became one of her last most successful albums. She dropped the bop What about Us? And title track  Full Moon and He Is as singles, but the latter did not see much success. Later in 2004 Brandy dropped Afrodisiac and dropped singles Talk about our love, Who is She 2 U and self-titled track Afrodisiac. The album is labeled a flop by many, but it has MANY bops and it was actually mishandled by her management and label which subsequently led her to part ways with her management and later with Atlantic Records. 

Art is subjective and some love her album Human, but personally I feel its passable, so I won’t talk about it. Eventually in 2012 Brandy came to her senses and released Two Eleven which is the album I want to praise. 

She dropped her first single It All Belongs to Mewith Monica which was a bop but it doesn’t do the album justice. Songs like So Sick & Do You Know What You Have?  helped me get through a bad break up and you can tell helped Brandy heal too. Other songs like Let Me Go and Slower remind you why Brandy became so big and throw you back into her debut. Her ballads  Hardly Breathing & Paint This House move you and are a testament to Brandys unique voice. I think the issue with the album was her single Put It Down with the problematic Chris Brown. It’s a bop but his image has never recovered since the Rihanna incident and anyone that isn’t a man that collaborates with Brown seems to suffer. 

Brandy recently released B7 and I’ve listened to it a few times. Its good, but I feel Two Eleven is better. The standout tracks on B7 are Unconditional Oceans, High Heels, No Tomorrow and Love Again.

What are some of your favorite Brandy performances & songs? What’s your favorite Brandy album? Let me know your thoughts! 

[ColdAsFire88]

I know there HAS to be Brandy fans on here 

[Jordan Miller]

2 hours ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

I want to start a weekly music thread that focuses on Artists and their legacies.

[Jordan Miller]

This is SO cool.

Full Moon is still one of my go-to albums. Love love love it. 

B7 is a grower. It gets better after each listen. 

Huge thank you for creating this @ColdAsFire88 

[anthony7226]

Brandy is QUEEN and her voice is a treasure. Right Here from Human was a total mood so you’re wrong to not talk about it. Lol. 

[VCTR]

So human and the album after that was a mess for me but I stan Brandy, Never Say Never, Full Moon, and Afrodisiac. I remember getting the latter two on the day it came out. Thoughts on B7?

[bliss]

I love Brandy, I discovered her music last year and my fav album is Never Say Never (even though Afrodisiac is a close second). I think B7 has some good songs (Baby Mama, Borderline, Love Again, Rather Be, etc) but at times the vocal layering is too much and makes some songs just unlistenable, overall the album is a 6/10, not bad but it's not an album that I would buy tbh. Some of my fav songs are U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To), her cover of Everything I Do (I Do It For You), What About Us?, Full Moon, I Thought, Afrodisiac, I Tried and Right Here (Departed).

[Spicechinodiva]

How can you not love the vocal Bible, aka Whitney Houston musical daughter.

[Style.]

7 hours ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

I know there HAS to be Brandy fans on here 

[ColdAsFire88]

6 hours ago, Jordan Miller said:

This is SO cool.

Full Moon is still one of my go-to albums. Love love love it. 

B7 is a grower. It gets better after each listen. 

Huge thank you for creating this @ColdAsFire88 

Awww thanks! More to come!

I also love full moon, but I think my favorite is Never Say Never

6 hours ago, anthony7226 said:

Brandy is QUEEN and her voice is a treasure. Right Here from Human was a total mood so you’re wrong to not talk about it. Lol. 

I just remember not being into, but I'll give it another try  

6 hours ago, VCTR said:

So human and the album after that was a mess for me but I stan Brandy, Never Say Never, Full Moon, and Afrodisiac. I remember getting the latter two on the day it came out. Thoughts on B7?

I really got into  Two Eleven but at that time we were getting LOTS of EDM so it was refreshing to hear an artist like Brandy get into R&B/Hiphop and I honestly believe that album inspired Miley's BANGERZ because Mike Will Produced some Bops on it. 

B7 is definitely a grower for me. So far I've been enjoying four songs. The rest is kind of skippable, but I won't deny that Brandy has talent and great music. 

5 hours ago, bliss said:

I love Brandy, I discovered her music last year and my fav album is Never Say Never (even though Afrodisiac is a close second). I think B7 has some good songs (Baby Mama, Borderline, Love Again, Rather Be, etc) but at times the vocal layering is too much and makes some songs just unlistenable, overall the album is a 6/10, not bad but it's not an album that I would buy tbh. Some of my fav songs are U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To), her cover of Everything I Do (I Do It For You), What About Us?, Full Moon, I Thought, Afrodisiac, I Tried and Right Here (Departed).

I think that's the challenge I have with B7...they layered the heck out of her vocals on some songs  her last studio album was in 2012 so hopefully her voice is still good. Seems to be on other tracks 

5 hours ago, Spicechinodiva said:

How can you not love the vocal Bible, aka Whitney Houston musical daughter.

Yass! This throwback! 

 The part with Whitney flying by the carriage made me 

[Korb]

YES,come through! I ******* love Brandy. Her runs are like no other and her music is amazing.
She has one of my favorite voices in music 

[Adriannn]

I like this Wednesday Vault proposal

[bliss]

7 hours ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

I think that's the challenge I have with B7...they layered the heck out of her vocals on some songs  her last studio album was in 2012 so hopefully her voice is still good. Seems to be on other tracks 

Her voice is still great (Love Again proves it) the problem really is the vocal layering, I don't know why they over did it so much 

[Yolo_92swag]

I never post on exhale, but had too after seeing some comments lol. Brandy has better control of her voice than other artists currently out. There’s a reason why people call her “The Vocal Bible”. People talking about too much layering, clearly don’t understand r&b music and runs lol. It’s a shame mainstream radio has turn their back on her and other r&b artists from her generation since mid 2000’s. 

[ColdAsFire88]

7 hours ago, Adriannn said:

I like this Wednesday Vault proposal

Im debating on who I wanna write about next week  Essentially I want to write about artists that are 10+ years into their career and have 3 or more albums in their discography 

[Adriannn]

10 minutes ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

Im debating on who I wanna write about next week  Essentially I want to write about artists that are 10+ years into their career and have 3 or more albums in their discography 

Late 90s and early 00s songstresses will suit you well 

[Jordan Miller]

5 hours ago, Yolo_92swag said:

I never post on exhale, but had too after seeing some comments lol. Brandy has better control of her voice than other artists currently out. There’s a reason why people call her “The Vocal Bible”. People talking about too much layering, clearly don’t understand r&b music and runs lol. It’s a shame mainstream radio has turn their back on her and other r&b artists from her generation since mid 2000’s. 

Welcome to Exhale!! 🙏 And glad to see you started participating right away

[2K16NEY]

I only know What About Us and Full Moon. I love both. I will check out her albums 

[Spicechinodiva]

3 hours ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

Im debating on who I wanna write about next week  Essentially I want to write about artists that are 10+ years into their career and have 3 or more albums in their discography 

Just got this 11 CD box set on Ace of Base, I forgot just how good they were on melodies and Music instincts, and how in the 90s, They challenged radio formats in the US by not sounding like Janet, Mariah, and a few others. 

Their three albums in the 90s each had a different sound, plus some huge events happened Favorite Member Linn, started by 98 purposely removing herself from the spotlight, as she never liked Fame and music industry business was actually ruining it for her.

Plus Jonas feels compromising on making a second album fast by demand was ruining his relationship with his sisters and Family. 23 months of non stop promo, touring fit the Happy Nation album dubbed The Sign in the US. They were exhausted, plus remember almost 30 years since That album was released nobody in the industry cared about mental health, or proper breaks. People were seen as money machines, The Sign made Arista in 1994 42 Million dollars, The music industry back then cared more about the money and less about the artists. 

Unlike today, back then was one day you will see the phones stop calling and people will have no interest in you. That's when you can rest, until then it's work, work, work until the money stops

[corpsetranger]

23 hours ago, VCTR said:

So human and the album after that was a mess for me

COME AGAIN