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Brave is the sixth studio album by American singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. It was released on October 4, 2007, by Epic Records. Inspired by her marriage with Marc Anthony and taking influences by Jamiroquai and Sade, "Brave" features prominently samples from old classics, mixing up with funk and R&B music. Brave sees Lopez working with new collaborators, such as Ryan Tedder, Midi Mafia, Jonathan Rotem, Bloodshy, Lynn & Wade LLP, The Clutch and others, while also working with long-time collaborator Cory Rooney throughout the album.
The album received a mixed reception from critics, with some complimenting its production, calling the album one of her strongest albums to date, while many called it a formulaic and bland album. The album underperformed commercially, becoming her first album to miss the top-ten on the Billboard 200 chart, while also missing the top-twenty in the UK, Australia, and other markets. It has sold only 650,000 copies worldwide.
The album spawned two worldwide singles: "Do It Well" and "Hold It Don't Drop It". The first received generally favorable reviews, but peaked modesty on the charts, reaching the top-twenty in some countries, but only peaking at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while the latter also received positive reaction, but did not make any significant impact on the charts. Therefore, subsequent singles were cancelled due to the low-impact of previous singles on the charts. Lopez promoted the album with a series of live performances, while also embarking on a co-headling tour with Marc Anthony.
User Album Review
"Brave" received mixed reviews from most music critics, according to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, receiving an average score of 52, based on twelve reviews.[35] Kerri Mason of Billboard was positive with the album, calling it "another market-smart collection of radio fodder, rather than Lopez's artistic breakout," remarking that "no one does classy pop quite like she does."[15] Dan Gennoe of Yahoo! Music complimented the album, calling it "actually one of her strongest albums to date - tied with 2005's uncharacteristically complete and substantial 'Rebirth'."[38] While considering an "excellent record", Dan Aquilante of New York Post opined that it's "Lopez's best effort since her 2002 groundbreaking remix disc 'J to tha L-O!'."[36] Alex Macpherson of The Guardian praised the album for its "chunky bass lines, disco strings and purring beats", noting that "while marriage may have made Lopez happier than ever - the production bounces with positivity - it has not diminished her capacity for being a diva in the slightest."[12]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "comfortable", writing that "it doesn't try too hard, it doesn't have many surprises, but it's cheerful and not without its charms [...] 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."[8] Jason Richards of NOW agreed, writing that the songs are "formulaic but catchy, and the production is meticulous."[37] Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine praised the song "The Way It Is", calling it "a nice head of steam all the way up to its double-time wall of sound", but criticized the fact that the album "aims to uphold the standards of individuality we have, for whatever reason, come to expect from our dance floor divas."[16] Daniel Wolfe of About.com commented that "the beats are so light and the lyrics so bland that only a few tracks give us a glimpse of what once was an exciting dance floor diva."[17] In a more negative tone, Mike Joseph of PopMatters wrote that the album "has neither a strong artistic personality nor boffo production, and as a result, ends up being just another disposable pop record with no redeeming value."[13] Jonathan Bernstein of Entertainment Weekly commented that "even expensive beats and uplifting material are offset by listless vocals."[9] Eventually, 'Entertainment Weekly' placed the album at number 5 on their list of worst albums of 2007.[
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