Chris Brown’s ‘fortune’ fails to impress critics

FAZAL-UR-REHMAN

Singer and Rapper Chris Brown might be trying to re-invent his tarnished image, but he has been unsuccessful in impressing critics with the release of his latest album “Fortune.”

Brown’s fifth studio album follows on the heels of his 2011 record “F.A.M.E” that debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard Charts. Following the release of "F.A.M.E," Brown also won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.

But if early reviews are any indication, "Fortune" appears to be a misfire.

The 23-year-old singer is now midway through a five-year trial judgment after pleading guilty to a domestic battery suit filed by his ex-girlfriend Rihanna on the eve of the Grammys. Three years later, he is adamant to shake his bad-boy image. But just last month, he and Canadian Rapper Drake donned headlines after a bloody bar-fight in New York City.

Randall Roberst of the Los Angeles Times gave the album 2 out of 4 stars, while Entertainment Weekly’s Kyle Anderson pronounced Fortune "furthers a worried and frustrating undo between Brown’s hot-tempered personal life and his infrequently edgeless low-pitched persona” and gave it a ‘C-minus’.

In Britain too critics have been unimpressed. The BBC’s Nick Levine pronounced the work delivered “unremarkable mid-tempo RnB” and called it “cripplingly pointless.”