Marc Anthony

Jennifer Lopez simplifies her pop sound on new disc

Jennifer Lopez
Brave
***
By JOEY GUERRA
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Jennifer Lopez,last time we checked, still likes to rock the fur and bring the bling. But musically speaking, she's doing away with the unnecessary accessories. Brave, in stores Tuesday, is free of the languid hip-hop grooves, guest rappers and staid production that have diminished Lopez's musical appeal. The new disc is brisk and bright, and Lopez doesn't stretch her slight vocals as thin as on her previous pop records.
Maybe she's learned how to better disguise her limitations. Stacked vocals help. Or maybe a breakneck work pace suits la Lopez. Brave is her sixth studio disc and second this year, following March's unexpectedly elegant, Spanish-language Como Ama Una Mujer. That's in between film work (El Cantante) and a tour with husband Marc Anthony (Oct. 31 in Houston).
Whatever the reason, Brave is more fun than it probably should be and a big improvement over Rebirth, DOA in 2005. So back off, haters. There's no shame in digging Brave's snap, crackle and pop.
Producers J.R. Rotem, Ryan Tedder, Midi Mafia and Bloodshy give the disc a dance-soul glow that's both retro and of the minute, like less-complicated earlier hits Waiting for Tonight - still Lopez's pop pinnacle - and Let's Get Loud.
Stay Together, Forever and The Way It Is are a mix of glitterball glamour and liquid soul grooves. Hold It Don't Drop It, already a club hit, comes to dishy disco life via a horn-fueled sample of the Tavares tune It Only Takes a Minute.
First single Do It Well twists along an elastic blast of gym-workout energy. It's punched up even more in a bonus version featuring a bilingual Ludacris rap.
Gotta Be There scores bonus points for its Houston shout-out and an old-school Michael Jackson sample.
Mile In These Shoes is the requisite poor-me, diva declaration, but Lopez keeps the eye-rolling at bay with her slinky delivery of the tongue-in-cheeky lyrics. "Honey, these pumps are too big too fill," she coos. "My strut's so fierce."



Jennifer Lopez's upcoming album review is coming at 10:00 PM (ET)!
Is it finally possible? Is Jennifer's latest effort finally worth it? I guess so, at least that's what I feel. Lopez seems to have given an excellent album. Her album possess a lot of diversity, and it's very poppish, which is pretty good for her. The godess finally put a lot of work in her album, her voice is perfect, she really nailed it, and it sounds so great. Jennifer's new album doesn't really possess amazing songs, but the album in it's integrality contains a lot of quality tracks, and that's what I like about it. The album stays on the line of modern sounds, and that's a good step she took. I think Jennifer could really have an enormous hit with this album! Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, and Techno are very well blended, and Brave's a must buy album for every fans of the queen and all the R&B and Pop fans out there. FINALLY, THE END OF THE FLOP ERA THAT REBIRTH CREATED!
http://moviesmusicmagazine.wordpress.co ... es-review/

Jennifer Lopez's Brave: A Return to Pop-Urban Roots

Jennifer Lopez is one of the biggest stars in the world. She has been able to capitalize her success as a Fly Girl on the comedy show In Living Color to being one of the biggest stars in music and acting. On her new album, Brave, Jennifer Lopez takes it back to her pop and urban roots. Unlike her last album, Como Ama Una Mujer, this album is completely an English-language album. Will Jennifer Lopez still be on top after Brave, or should she just stick to movies and perfumes?

The first single off of Brave is the catchy Do It Well. The song features the very famous from the song Keep On Truckin' by Eddie Kendricks. The song was most famously sampled on Mr. Cheeks' hit Lights, Cameras, Action. The song is a produced and written by Ryan Tedder and is a very solid dance track. Also featured on the album is the remix version of the song featuring rapper Ludacris. The song is the only song on the album to feature a guest appearance. Ludacris adds a Spanglish verse which only adds to the appeal of the song.

Hold It, Don't Drop It is another up-tempo song. The track was produced by hip hop producers Midi Mafia and features a sample from Tavares' hit It Only Takes A Minute. The song is a happy song and shows Jennifer at her best. She is definitely polished when she is featured over a dance record.

Mile In These Shoes is a very different song. The track is a mid-tempo, synth-heavy song. It is very different from other songs currently out on the market. It was produced by Warren Felder. The song is very unique and that adds appeal to it.

Wrong When You're Gone is a very solid mid-tempo song produced by the production and writing team The Clutch. The song is very catchy and is a surefire radio hit. The song features Lopez showing off her strongest vocal ability.

Stay Together produced by J.R. Rotem is an overall solid track. The beat is catchy and Jennifer delivers vocally.

Gotta Be There produced by The Platinum Brothers features a sample of the Jackson Five classic I Wanna Be Where You Are. The song is catchy and very danceable. The song is typical Jennifer Lopez.

Brave is a track produced from a collaboration between Bloodshy &Avant and The Clutch. The song is another catchy mid-tempo song. The song is a good way to close out the album as it closes the project off properly.

Overall, Brave is a good album from Jennifer Lopez. The songs are pop-driven with a tinge of urban music and non-offensive in nature. The album does not really take any risks, but it is the album you would expect from an international pop artist like Jennifer Lopez. Brave gets 7 out of 10 stars. If you're a fan of Jennifer Lopez, make sure you pick up Brave when it's in stores on October 9.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... urban.html

Jennifer Lopez

Brave
RS: 2.5of 5 Stars Average User Rating: 4.5of 5 Stars

Even when she attempted to rep the block, Jennifer Lopez's music career has been about as edgy as her famous booty. Auto-Tune and star power have buoyed her since 1999's On the 6, but now J. Lo has turned away from the slick, minimalist future funk currently ruling the pop zeitgeist for chintzy production that screams 1990. Brave has two obsessions: love and cheesy strings. Dollops of orchestration are plopped onto all but two of twelve tracks, from the Latin freestyle-esque opener, "Stay Together" ("Heartbreaks are overrated, stay together, that's the new trend," insists the twice-divorced Lopez), to stubbornly undanceable midtempo duds like the synth-overloaded "The Way It Is" and "I Need Love," on which Lopez convinces herself it's time to quit partying and settle down. But the club, not love, is her salvation, as she proves on "Do It Well," the only track that lets J. Lo do her thing: dance.

CARYN GANZ
(Posted: Oct 18, 2007)

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/alb ... 2672/brave


If J. Lo really wanted to get bold, she would have led off her fifth album with its namesake track. It's a declaration of newfound fearlessness that Lopez sings like a nymphish Madonna, set to a steady beat and triumphant strings. The song is so good and convincingly personal that you want the rest of the album to bloom from it, like "Ray of Light" after "Substitute for Love." But "Brave" is the closer, not the opener, and the album is another market-smart collection of radio fodder, rather than Lopez's artistic breakout. That said, no one does classy pop quite like she does. "Do It Well" has one of her signature hip-hop breakdowns, "Forever" is harem R&B like Beyoncé's "Baby Boy," and "Gotta Be There" samples a helium-ed Michael Jackson and references hip-hop dancefloor burner "Puerto Rico." Maybe it should be called "Smart" instead. -Kerri Mason

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/content_ ... ccf93c5b4c

US Weekly

Jennifer Lopez
Brave
By GABE GUARENTE
RELEASE DATE: TUESDAY 10/9
***

The dance-floor diva is back! Six months aft er releasing a schmalt zy Spanish-language CD, Jennifer Lopez returns to her up-tempo roots with an album of tracks tailor-made for the clubs. The sizzling first single, "Do It Well," sets the tone with dramatic orchestral strings; the disco-sounding "Hold It Don't Drop It" has a flirty feel; and the J.R. Rotem-produced "Stay Together" is Rihanna-esque. While Lopez's lyrical skills can falter (she rhymes "brave" with "not afraid" on the title track), her knack for bootyshakin' beats proves that, even at 38, the married Lopez hasn't lost her touch.

The people Review Says:
Music by Chuch Arnold

Brave: ***

As Far as dance-pop divas go, Jennifer Lopez may never have her Ray of Light or Control. But she learned enough moves from Madonna and Janet- two singers with limited voices-to usually make her albums guilty pleasures. Brave, while hardly daring,is consistently entertaining. Whereas thi year's Spanish-language depature, Como Ama Una Mujer, got bogged down by too many ballads, the new CD takes the former Fly Girl back to the dance floor, where she belongs. Club-friendly cuts like "Hold It Dont Drop It" and first single "Do It Well"-sampling Tavares and Eddie Kendricks respectively-find the missing link between disco and hip-hop, while the throbbing title sounds like a lost Madge track circa 1986.

Jennifer Lopez
Brave
by Eric Henderson
Posted: October 7, 2007

he wider (read: more muscular) Paula Abdul's thighs got (as per In Living Color's "The Promise of a Thin Me" satire of her Spellbound-era girth), the more I liked her music. When former Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez's first long-player, On the 6, showed up on store shelves in 1999, my first thought was, "What happened to all that booty she gained to fill out Selena's costumes? Does On the 6 refer to the number of inches between the inner walls of her legs? Give those loose panties something to cling to!" Sometime between when I was forcibly removed from the L section of Sam Goody for asking these questions aloud and when Lopez followed up with the rubbery quicksilver bassline of "Play" (still, for my skinny pale ass, the meaty crown of her anorexic musical career), it was clear to me she had fed her low end and came out a would-be neo-disco diva waiting for, if not tonight, some distant day when the reigning queens of dance-R&B finally got winded. Well, Madonna cashed in her disco cred by sampling ABBA, and Janet Jackson is off shilling the matrimonial homilies of Tyler Perry. No time like the present, J. Lo, especially since your ostensibly pregnant frame can carry the weight.

And it is thusly La Lopez kicks off the David LaChapelle-directed music video for "Do It Well," by strapping on her YSLs and walking a mile (or is it a yard?) down the concrete runway en route to what appears to be the downtown location of a Shortbus franchise (or else it's Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" club re-imagined as a Chuck E. Cheese). Filmed from the back, her frame is wide, commanding, solid. When LaChapelle cuts to her face, it's severe, almost androgynous. The song itself is a fairly imaginative reworking of one of the many string breaks from Eddie Kendricks's "Keep On Truckin'," but I wasn't really sold on it until I watched Lopez put those legs to truckin', kickin', hustlin', and fleein'. As it turns out, her only reason for steppin' at the subterranean carnivale is to rescue her own pocket migrant worker from the dishroom. Oh, I get it: It's a Dance Dance Revolution Irréversible. I can't say I know for sure what the hell the video is saying, but I can tell you it wouldn't be saying nearly as much were it not for Lopez and her tied-off black overcoat-cum-mini.

The press materials for the tune's parent album, Brave, stress that the CD is her stab at making pure feel-good music, but the music video for "Do It Well" is as big, powerful, and serious as maternity itself. There are no doubt songs on the album that make good on the radically scaled back expectations for "feel-good" tuneage, first and foremost the impending second single "Hold It, Don't Drop It." Something like the paragon of sounds-best-the-first-time-you-hear-it pop songwriting, the song thrashes your body mercilessly the first time, tickles your ears the second time, and compels you to track down that old "It Only Takes a Minute" vinyl by the third or fourth. (Your mileage may vary, of course, given how much or how little respect you have for the Tavares track.)

Another track that sounds promising at first blush but eventually grates is "Mile in These Shoes." Sonically intriguing, its spare verses seem to emerge from a dank, empty warehouse before the chorus opens up with a hip-hop/rock barrage of drums straight out of Janet's playbook. Right about then is when the idiocy of reducing the ultimate "You don't know me" metaphor for individualism into an excuse to name-drop haute couture icons becomes apparent. In case it wasn't obvious, the moral of "Mile in These Shoes" isn't that you can't truly understand what it's like to be Lopez until you walk that mile (or that aforementioned concrete catwalk) in her pumps-it's that you can't afford her pumps.

"Mile in These Shoes," as good as it sounds, is a testament to the big hypocrisy of Brave. It's an album that aims to uphold the standards of individuality we have, for whatever reason, come to expect from our dance floor divas. If the album builds up a nice head of steam all the way up to the double-time wall of sound that is "The Way It Is," the problem is it's not necessarily Lopez's head of steam: The shuffling of "Stay Together" suggests Beyoncé's "Déjà Vu" gyrations, and the gut-bucket dirge rhythms of "Forever" resemble Justin Timbaland's slow-building funk epics. By the time her convincing but disheartening approximation of old school fun comes a predictable series of mid-tempo numbers beginning with the make-it-up-as-you-go-along lyrics of "Be Mine" ("Looking through a coffee table book at a small café on Broadway," et al) and ultimately winding up on the shallow uplift of the album's title track, you will have managed to completely forget the face sitting atop those fantastic legs.

J.Lo smooths her edges
She may call her new CD 'Brave,' but she's not taking any risks with her sound

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS
October 9, 2007


Jennifer Lopez has always protested a bit too much in her music.

When she declares, "I'm Real," it's time to start looking for the seams. When she reminds us she's still "Jenny from the Block," her doubts about all the rocks that she's got changing her must be getting serious. So when she names her new album "Brave," you have to wonder what she's afraid of.

No doubt tabloid watchers will guess that all these songs about happily-ever-after love and the glories of coupledom ("Heartbreaks are overrated; 'Stay together,' that's the new trend," she sings in "Stay Together") mean there may be trouble in Brookville with husband Marc Anthony. But that's too obvious a reading - Miss "Love Don't Cost a Thing" has always sung about the glories of true love.

What's probably more telling on "Brave" (Epic) is the music. As is the case with the rest of Lopez's public life these days, she is playing it safer than she once did.

Gone are the edgy beats and the prominent rap cameos of her last album, 2005's "Rebirth," replaced by lots of radio-friendly dance pop and delicate ballads. Her streetwise, catch-phrase-creating lyrics have morphed into family-friendly anthems like "I Need Love," where she says she's "sick and tired of frontin'" and advocates less nightclubbing and more cuddling.

There's nothing wrong with any of that really. The first half of "Brave" works this new strategy so well it builds Lopez's best run of songs since 2001's "J.Lo" album. Despite its clunky lyrics, "Stay Together" is a sleek slice of throwback dance pop, complete with flute flourishes and loads of Latin percussion. "Hold It, Don't Drop It" elevates flecks of "Off the Wall"-era Michael Jackson, including the staccato horns and funky bass lines, into pure disco grandeur. And the first single "Do It Well" is a high-energy good time that blends the best bits of "Love Don't Cost a Thing" and "Waiting for Tonight."

It's head and shoulders above "Rebirth," but after a while, it gets to be a bit much. The second half of "Brave" plays a little too test-marketed, like one of those "all your favorites and no rap" radio stations. "I Need Love" isn't as crisp as the earlier songs. The ballad "Wrong When You're Gone" is a little too sappy. And "Be Mine" lopes lazily over what sounds like a sample from Smashmouth's "All Star."

Maybe it's because "Brave" is Lopez's second album of the year, following the spring's Spanish release "Como Ama Una Mujer," but the second half sounds like she ran out of time - or creative gas.

And the whole project has the feel of someone worried about reconnecting with a mainstream audience, desperately trying to give the people what she thinks they want, instead of offering up what she wants.

Lopez is a good enough actress to pass these songs off as genuine. But she performs so much better when she's not acting, when she's still "Jenny from the Block" sashaying across the stage, using her ambition and sass to drive her.

She walls a lot of that off on this album, making it not "Brave," as much as it is "Safe."

AllMusic:

Brave follows Como Ama una Mujer, Jennifer Lopez's first Spanish-language album, by a matter of seven months -- a quick follow-up by any measure, but perhaps one that reflects the lack of buzz Como created. On paper, Brave should be the polar opposite of its immediate predecessor -- it's in English where the other was in Spanish, that album was moody and dramatic, this is light and peppy -- but despite these superficial differences, the two albums have a number of similarities, chief among them that they are the work of a woman settled and happy in her marriage. Jennifer kicks off the album with "Stay Together," an anthem of monogamy where she declares that heartbreak and dating are so passé, that toughing it out is the new trend, and the rest of the record kind of plays off that theme, as nights out on the town are traded for cozy nights at home. While Lopez may have domesticity on her mind, Brave is still a dance album, filled with bright beats and happy hooks, but this isn't music for clubbing, it's dance music for home, maybe background music for some chores. As such, it doesn't sound fresh -- there's nothing that reflects any current dance trends, not even a passing nod at Justin Timberlake's neo-electro or crunk
-- it sounds stuck in 1999, when J-Lo released her first album, or perhaps even in 1989, when she was a Fly Girl on In Living Color. It's the sound of a housewife looking back and remembering when things were a bit more carefree -- it's nostalgia, but tempered with happiness, since she's perfectly content with where she's at now. So, Brave is comfortable, it doesn't try too hard, it doesn't have many surprises, but it's cheerful and not without its charms, as it's a throwback that's done without a hint of self-consciousness or irony. It's nothing more than modest music for mellow good times, but it's lively enough to be fleeting fun, with enough good tunes for a mild party, preferably one that's held at home.

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rating: 3/5 (track picks - Do It Well and Stay Together)
Como Ama Una Mujer: 2/5
Rebirth: 4/5
This Is Me... Then: 4/5
J To Tha L-O: 2.5/5
J.Lo: 3/5
On The 6: 4/5

Jennifer Lopez - Brave
Contributed by Nathan S.


Remember when Jennifer Lopez was the biggest female performer in music? She was sitting pretty atop the charts, graced the cover of every tabloid in the world and shook her assets so well, Chris Rock joked she showed up for the Grammy's "in two limos, one for her, and one for her booty." Those were the days. Well apparently J-Lo learned a couple things from her brief fling with Diddy (other than how to shoot someone in a club…allegedly). Over the last few years the once infamous drama queen has moved behind the scenes, concentrating on her role as the CEO of the J-Lo empire. But how long can a diva go without the loving caress of the spotlight?

Two years. That's how long it's been since her last major English album, the disappointing (by J-Lo standards) Rebirth. Ms. Lopez is ready for center stage again with the release of her new album Brave, a work short on lyrical depth but long on dance-ability and pop infused enjoyment. No more tales of heartbreak and pain for J-Lo, she's finally happy and wants the world to know it.

Has J-Lo's moment in the musical sun already passed her by, or can she still regain the top spot? It depends on what track you're listening to. The most likely candidate for a smash hit is Do It Well, the ass-shaking masterpiece she's wisely chosen as her first single. The tracks got that "classic" J-Lo feel, huge strings and horns pared over funk-based percussion, with just a dash of Latin flavor thrown in. Do It Well is as epic as a song designed for moving in the club can be, even if the song's about two-third's incredible production, one-third J-Lo's singing. For the record it will be a crime if the remix doesn't get released because Ludacris absolutely murders his guest verse. Stay Together, produced by Sean Kingston's daddy J.R. Rotem, is another certified shaker with a live band feel that pulses across the speakers. It's what feel good pop should be, though I have to address the lyrical content: J-Lo let's everyone know "break-ups are overrated/stay together, that's the new trend." Getting relationship advice from J-Lo is like being taught advanced calculus by Paris Hilton. There, I've said my peace.

J-Lo's strength had never been a dynamic singing voice and the ballads on Brave prove it. Never Gonna Give Up begins with over two minutes of her voice weaving in and out of a string orchestra, but without huge production filling the space behind her J-Lo's voice sounds thin, just slightly better than average. Keyshia Cole would have killed it. Then again, Wrong When You're Gone shows she can bring some soul to the mic when she's adequately inspired. The softly clapping production will be stuck in your head for days, shockingly enough it wasn't produced by Ne-Yo. For her part J-Lo rises to the occasion with her best vocal performance on the album, even though that's not saying much. Before I start getting death threats from the J-Lo fan club let's just be honest: her voice doesn't sell records. If she looked like Jennifer Hudson she'd struggle to even get a record deal. I'm not hating on anyone, that's just the stone cold reality of the music industry.

Still, most of Brave falls somewhere in between great club anthems and lackluster slow jams, a place also known as guilty-pleasureville. The Way It Is has my favorite production on the album. Built around a live drum that stutters and paves it's way through the track like a suave b-boy, J-Lo hits the perfect balance between R&B and pop. I'm secure enough in my manhood to admit I was singing along in the car. The title track Brave is more personal diary than hit single for the romantically troubled Ms. Lopez, but it's exactly the kind of pro-woman track that's equally at home in a Disney show and a grown woman's stereo after a bad break-up. I'm not exactly in either demographic, but I can still appreciate the appeal. Brave, the song and the album as a whole, is designed to please J-Lo's original fans, but how many of those people have moved on to Beyonce and Rihanna? I guess we'll find out a week from now when the sales receipts come in. In closing let me add this: I don't care what you say J-Lo; you're a long, long, way from being just Jenny from the block.

Честно говоря, отзывы для Джен неутешительные. Почти везде альбом оценивают не больше чем в три звездочки.
Не знаю, есть ли у вас у кого-то желание перевести хотя бы одну рецензию. Я бегло пробежалась по ним... Удивило сравнение "Brave" с творчеством Полы Абдул, которая уже давно никаких альбомов не выпускала. Но больше всего с песнями Мадонны "Ray of Light", "Substitute for Love" и Бейонсе "Baby Boy". Не знаю, может я глухая, но ничего общего с этими песнями у "Brave" точно не наблюдается.