Breezy (album)
Breezy is the tenth studio album by American singer Chris Brown, released on June 24, 2022, as the follow-up to his 2019 album Indigo.[6] The artists featured on the album are Lil Wayne, Anderson .Paak, Blxst, Lil Baby, H.E.R., EST Gee, Wizkid, Jack Harlow, Tory Lanez, Fivio Foreign, Ella Mai, Yung Bleu, Capella Grey, Lil Durk, Davido and Bryson Tiller. The album marks his first studio album not being a double-disc since his 2015 album Royalty.
Breezy is an R&B album, also containing soul and trap-driven songs. Its lyrical content mostly mixes themes of romance and sex. The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200, making it his lowest charting album in the country since Graffiti (2009). Breezy was preceded by three singles; "Iffy", "WE (Warm Embrace)" and "Call Me Every Day". At the 65th Grammy Awards, the deluxe edition of Breezy was nominated for Best R&B Album.[7]
Background and recording[edit]
Chris Brown started working on the album simultaneously with the release of his ninth studio album Indigo.[8] The singer said in July 2021, while working on the album, that he wanted to make some "really endearing music" that "talk to women's soul".[9] In February 2022, he stated on his Instagram account that the album would contain some pure R&B material.[10] He later said that on some of the album's songs he wanted to depict "a different type of love mixed with heartbreak".[11] The recording sessions for Breezy ended during the first days of June 2022. According to Brown, during the album's work he recorded almost 250 songs.[12][13] During an interview with Big Boy, one week before Breezy's release, the singer said that the project is more targeted towards his female audience.[8]
Composition[edit]
Breezy is an R&B record, containing a trap-driven first half, that includes most of the album's features, and a second half channelled into a soul soundscape, where Brown executes most of the album's solo performances.[2][20] The album, with its 23 tracks, marks a departure from the singer's previous double-disc projects Heartbreak on a Full Moon and Indigo.
Breezy's opener is the hip hop track "Till the Wheels Fall Off", featuring Lil Durk and Capella Grey, that runs for 5 minutes and 14 seconds, having a chorus that Brown executes singing with a bass voice and "intense" harmonies.[21] Lyrically, on the song the artists give a hopeful introspection over their emotional struggles caused by their personal life's harshest challenges.[22] The second track "Catch a Body", featuring Fivio Foreign, mixes R&B and drill music, containing swaggering lyrics.[21] The following track, "Pitch Black", is an R&B mid-tempo with sexual themes, with an uncredited intro performed by Anderson .Paak.[21] On "Possessive" Yung Bleu, Lil Wayne and Brown explore themes of jealousy, breakup and lovesickness, through a tone that was described by Miracle Oyedeji of The Inquirer as a "mixture of loving and nagging".[21] "Need You Right Here", "Hmhmm", and "Addicted" are trap-influenced R&B tracks with debaucherous themes.[21] "Survive the Night" is an alternative R&B track about drug addiction, where the singer approaches drugs as a lover that keeps hurting him, but he can't get rid of her from his emotions.[21] Oyedeji stated that the track is reminiscent of some material off Brown's 2017 album Heartbreak on a Full Moon.[21]
The thirteenth track, the R&B and soul slow-jam "Sleep at Night", marks a change of tone on the album, into a slower "soulful" soundscape.[21] The track was noted for showcasing the singer's timbre and falsetto.[21] "Passing Time" is an "80's inspired" mid-tempo where the singer is conversing with his lover asking for reassurance.[21] "WE (Warm Embrace)" is an R&B slow-jam, that contains an interpolation of Guy's 1991 single "Let's Chill".[21] Keithan Samuels of Rated R&B commented its lyrical content saying that it "shows the tender side of Brown as he aims to sexually please his stressed-out partner the best way he can".[23] "Dream", "Slide" and "Harder" are pure R&B tracks, that mix romantic and sexual themes.[21] The album's standard edition ends with "Luckiest Man", a song where Brown croons his confidence of wanting to spend the rest of his life with his loved one.[21]
Commercial performance[edit]
In the United States, Breezy debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 with 72,000 album-equivalent units, which included 5,000 pure album sales in its first week, making it his 11th top-ten album in the country.[45] The album also accumulated 87.36 million on-demand audio streams in the United States for its track list of 24 songs.[45] Five songs from Breezy charted on the Billboard Hot 100 during its debut week, making Chris Brown surpass Elvis Presley as the eighth artist with the most entries on the Hot 100, for a total of 112 entries on the chart.[46] In its second week, the album remained in the top ten and fell to number eight, earning 35,000 album-equivalent units.[47] The album spent three consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard 200.[48]
Notes
Sample credits