Brandy: Afrodisiac

Former teen star Brandy displays a delicate beauty on the cover of this new disc, but there's nothing fragile about the music inside. Brandy has blossomed into a confident singer who has gone far beyond the cooing, breathy stylings with which she hit pay dirt. As she sings on "Finally," "Finally, I'm where I'm supposed to be." That's just one of the declarations of independence and defiance found in these songs. Clearly, she's hit upon some rocky romantic times; these tracks are about men stepping out on her and treating her indifferently. In the face of this, she maintains, "Should I go, should I stay?/ I'm in control either way." She's lucky to have producer Timbaland along for most of these cuts as he brings the beats big time. Recently, Timba has been cruising on his reputation and repeating himself, but here he helps reinvent Brandy with delicious tracks that use strong bass lines and inventive samples. On the heavenly "Should I Go," he gets away with sampling the piano riff from Coldplay's "Clocks." On paper it sounds derivative, but it works very well. And the producer provides a monster groove for her to dig into on "Turn It Up," the best song on the CD. Other producers, including Organized Noise, contribute mightily. Add it up and "Afrodisiac" is one seductive disc.