Never Say Never (Brandy Norwood Album) - Contents

Contents

The album opens with the "Angel in Disguise", a Rodney Jerkins-produced mid-tempo track. The song was released as an airplay-only single in early 1999 and charted within the top twenty of the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart, peaking at number 17. Norwood has noted the song one of her favorite recordings on Never Say Never. Set as the album's lead single, "The Boy Is Mine" was released in May 1998 to good reviews. "The Boy Is Mine" was noted for being "smooth", also it was panned by critics saying, "When Brandy has it out with Monica in the backstabbing The Boy Is Mine, there's none of the soul-baring theatrics we'd get if Faith Evans and Mary J. Blige had gone at it. Instead, the two younger women play second fiddle to the steady-thumping bass, keeping their voices so low you'd think they were afraid a teacher might overhear them." The single was originally intended to be a solo song for Brandy, but due to Monica's success by that time it was released as a duet. It reached number one in the US and spent 13 weeks on the top spot, it outsold the success of its predecessor, lead single "I Wanna Be Down", which reached number six. "The Boy Is Mine" was also the international breakthrough success, peaking on the charts at number one in Japan, Canada, Netherlands and New Zealand and Top Ten in several other states. The single's music video was nominated for two 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, for Best R&B Video, and Video of the Year.

"Learn the Hard Way" is the album's fourth track. It is the third song on the album, and shares similarities with the song "Never Say Never". The Guy Roche-produced "Almost Doesn't Count" is the fifth track. Brandy performed the song in the 1999 film Double Platinum, starring Diana Ross and herself. The international single "Top of the World" is the album's sixth track. It is a collaboration with Mase and the song talks about Brandy as a popstar just trying to be her and not feeling like being in her own world. In the music video, directed by Paul Hunter, Brandy was featured incurring various supernatural phenomena. She spontaneously floated in the air, flipping and somersaulting above random objects; telephone poles and vehicles, as people stopped to stare. These strange phenomena also included balancing herself vertically and horizontally alongside skyscrapers and buildings. The Darkchild-produced "U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To)", which is the album's seventh and final single, is noted for its remix version with Shaunta and Da Brat. The remix was released as the lead single to the same-named EP. "Never Say Never", also produced by Rodney Jerkins, is the eighth song of the album. "Never Say Never" was released as a Germany single in 2000. "Truthfully", the ninth song, tells about a broken relationship.

The number-one-hit "Have You Ever?" was the tenth track. Brandy states that it was the first time she had been in the studio with a producer like David Foster. Her voice wasn't as developed as it is now and the song required what producers call ‘money notes' - the kind that get you a No. 1 on the charts. She says she was really nervous but it all worked just fine.", "Put That on Everything" a mid-tempo ballad is the albums eleventh track and was written by Brandy Norwood, L. Daniels, Fred Jenkins III, Rodney Jerkins and Joana Tejeda and is produced by Rodney Jerkins. The album's twelfth song is actually a phone conversation in the car between Brandy, Rodney and Fred Jerkins. "Happy", an R&B up-tempo-song, that was featured in the motion picture Double Platinum and received positive critics from The Rolling Stone magazine, was the album's thirteenth song. It also served as the theme song of the 2002 reality TV show Brandy: Special Delivery, which was aired on MTV. "One Voice", the fourteenth track, is the official UNICEF theme song in its 50th anniversary year. Entertainment Weekly describes her voice in the song as soft and smoky and as a gospel-fired ballad that find her effortlessly raising the roof. "Tomorrow", another ballad is the fifteenth track and is with almost 6 minutes the albums longest song. The final song is the Bryan Adams cover "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". Although lacking video or promotion the song received a top thirty entry on New Zealand singles chart.