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Indigo (Chris Brown album)

Indigo is the ninth studio album by American singer Chris Brown, released on June 28, 2019, by RCA Records.[1] The album is his second double album as well as a follow-up to his eighth album Heartbreak on a Full Moon (2017). Brown enlisted and worked with several producers, including Smash David, Soundz, Hitmaka, Boi-1da, Scott Storch, OG Parker and many others. The album features various guest appearances by urban and pop artists, including Nicki Minaj, G-Eazy, Tory Lanez, Tyga, Justin Bieber, Juicy J, Juvenile, H.E.R, Tank, Lil Jon, Lil Wayne, Joyner Lucas, Gunna, Trey Songz and Drake.

Indigo

June 28, 2019[1]

August 2018–May 2019

  • Calabasas Sound, Los Angeles
  • CBE, Tarzana

123:08

The official recording sessions for the album began in August 2018 and ended in May 2019. The album features a supernatural and spiritual imagery conceived by Brown, and handled by graffiti artist Saturno, visual artist Jeff Cole, and 3D artists Circle Circle Math and Sarper Baran. Musically, Indigo is an R&B record, that contains genres such as dancehall and bounce music as well. Its topics focus on spiritual love, sex, energy and vibrations, outlining a positive turn that follows a bad period in a person's life.


The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making it his third number-one album in that country, and first in seven years, since Fortune (2012). Six official singles were released from Indigo, including: "Undecided", "Back to Love", "Wobble Up", featuring Nicki Minaj and G-Eazy, "No Guidance", featuring Drake, and "Heat", featuring Gunna. "No Guidance" became the highest charting song from the album on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 5, and topping the Rhythmic Airplay chart, until being unseated by the following released single, "Heat", at the top spot. In 2022, the song "Under the Influence", contained in the extended edition of the album, became a sleeper hit, receiving great success internationally, and following its rose to success, the song was officially released as a single, roughly three years following its original release.

Music and lyrics[edit]

Indigo is an R&B album, which tends to a slightly more pop sound than its predecessor Heartbreak on a Full Moon,[3] containing elements of dancehall and Afrobeats.[11] Barry Walters of Spin found some songs of the album, such as "Indigo", "BP" and "Heat", to be a merge of "classic R&B sound and stylistic, with late 2010s trap influences".[12] The album's sound in parts contains influences of tropical music, where songs with percussionist sounds from genres like dancehall and bounce music prevail, as in songs like "You Like That", "Juice", "Wobble Up", "Back to Love" and "Lurkin'".[13]


The disc includes four double tracks: "Emerald/Burgundy", "Natural Disaster/Aura", "Trust Issues/Act In" and "BP/No Judgment".[14]


Indigo's topics outline a positive turn that follows a bad period in a person's life. In many parts of the album the singer describes how love, in his many forms, connects him to the enlightment of his spirituality.[12] According to A.D. Amorosi of The Inquirer, the album's themes mix spiritual awakening with sexuality.[12] Indigo, being the follow-up of Heartbreak on a Full Moon, leaves the raw and personal songwriting of that album, as well as its dark and sultry mood, for a way more lighthearted sound and tone, still having few introspective songs like "All on Me" and "Don't Check on Me" that give a closer look at Brown's trials and tribulations.[15]

Artwork[edit]

The cover art for the album was revealed on May 14, 2019, along with the back cover. The front cover artwork was designed by graffiti artist Saturno and features a purple-haired Chris Brown's face in space, surrounded by fictional monsters and flying saucers, while the back cover, designed by visual artist Jeff Cole, continues the supernatural theme with a levitating body over a pyramid.[16] The CD's interior illustrations were handled by 3D artists and concept designers Circle Circle Math and Sarper Baran, that worked over a photoshoot done by Jake Miosge, Brown's official tour photographer.[17][18] Artist Saturno explained in 2021 that Brown wanted to convey "The Indigo Generation" as the concept with crystal glass text. "On the cover, you can see human consciousness, religion, political powers, greed, indoctrination, obsolete education, and new era awakening. I placed Pisces and Aquarius constellations, ... a mythological being with armor that represents the superior intelligence, ...aliens in flying saucers, ... 11:11 the number of the angel.... All of the details and figures of the artwork are connected to that world and have a meaning".[19]

Release and promotion[edit]

In December 2017, Brown showed that he was working on new songs teasing a "Michael Jackson-inspired" song on his Instagram profile, filming a video from his studio and playing the song supposedly called "Afterlife".[4][5] During the first months of 2018 he posted some snippets of new unreleased songs, showing that he was working on a collaboration mixtape with Jacquees, on another collaboration mixtape with Joyner Lucas, and on his album, rumored to be called Indigo.[6]


In January 2019, Brown announced a new deal with International global media and his label RCA Records, becoming one of the youngest artists to own his masters at age 29.[20] Indigo was announced as the first album on this deal, with the release of the first single "Undecided" on January 4, 2019.[21] Three days later Brown stated in an Instagram post that his new album would not be as lengthy as Heartbreak on a Full Moon.[9]


He later previewed and released the second official single from the album, "Back to Love", on April 11, 2019, getting a positive response from fans and critics.[22][23][24] The following week he released the third single from the album, "Wobble Up", featuring Nicki Minaj and G-Eazy,[25] announcing that the album would be released in June, also confirming a summer tour with Nicki Minaj, that ended up never happening.[26][27] In an announcement made on May 2, 2019, Brown announced the list of artists he had been working with for the album, including Tory Lanez, Sage the Gemini, Tyga, Justin Bieber, Juicy J, Juvenile, H.E.R, Tank, Lil Jon, Lil Wayne, Joyner Lucas, Gunna and Drake.[28] Some of these collaborations were surprising to the media, especially Drake, due to their public feud that lasted for several years.[29][30][31] Two days later he said that Indigo would be a 30-track album, in reference to his 30th birthday.[32]


During Brown's birthday party on May 5, 2019, the singer previewed some songs from the album, and announced its release for June 21, 2019, later admitting a possible postponement to a week later, on June 28.[33][34] He later revealed the artwork of the album and its track list between May and June 2019.[35][36] On June 8, Brown released "No Guidance" featuring Drake as a single.[37] It debuted at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it Chris Brown's 15th top-ten song, and becoming his highest-charting song as a lead artist since 2013's "Loyal" as well.[38]


Indigo was released on June 28, 2019. After its release it wasn't promoted with any journalistic or radio interview or TV appearance, being Brown's first album to have no promotion through media appereances, just being pushed by his social media's accounts. In August he hinted an upcoming deluxe version of the album, confirming it on September 27.[39] On October 4, 2019, Brown released an expanded version of Indigo entitled Indigo Extended, which included 10 additional songs, making the extended version a total of 42 songs.[40]


In January 2020 Brown announced on his Instagram profile that the album was about to get a "mini movie" visual version.[41] Later on March 9, 2020 he confirmed its working posting a short video snippet of futuristic graphics accompanied by the song "Red". He captioned the video with "INDIGO MOVIE STARTS PRODUCTION SOON".[42][43] However the mini movie ended up never happening, with speculations that it didn't because of the starting of COVID-19 pandemic.[44]

Commercial performance[edit]

In the United States, Indigo debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 108,000 album-equivalent units, which included 28,000 pure album sales in its first week, making it his third number-one album in the country.[54] The album also accumulated 97.95 million on-demand audio streams in the United States for its track list of 32 songs.[54] In its second week, the album remained in the top ten and fell to number three, earning just under 50,000 album-equivalent units.[55] In its third week, the album dropped to number five on the chart, earning 42,000 album-equivalent units that week.[56] Just over a month after its release, Indigo generated over 1 billion streams.[57] On December 9, 2019, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over a million units in the United States.[58] Indigo was the nineteenth best-selling album of the year according to Hits, moved a total of 903,000 album-equivalent units by the end of 2019, including 84,000 pure album sales, 378,000 song sales, 1,029 billion audio-on-demand streams, and 112 million video-on-demand streams.[59] Indigo became Chris Brown's longest-running album on the Billboard 200, spending over 100 weeks on the chart.[60]


In Australia, the album opened at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Brown's sixth top-ten album in the country.[61] In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart, Brown's seventh top-ten album on the chart.[62]

signifies a co-producer

^[a]

signifies an additional producer

^[b]

signifies an uncredited co-producer

^[c]

signifies an uncredited additional producer

^[d]

"Let's Smoke" was not included on streaming versions of the album internationally nor on Apple Music in the US; thus the track listing was cut down to 32 songs (42 including the extended edition).

"Indigo" features uncredited background vocals by

Tank

"Trust Issues" features uncredited vocals by

Sage the Gemini

"Juice" features background vocals by

Tone Stith

"Undecided" features background vocals by

Felicia Ferraro

Notes


Sample credits