Full Moon is the third studio album by American singer Brandy. It was released on February 20, 2002, by Atlantic Records. The album was recorded primarily during the summer and fall of 2001 at the Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, amid a three-year musical hiatus following the success of her multi-platinum previous studio album Never Say Never (1998) and the finale of her successful television sitcom Moesha in May 2001. As with Never Say Never, Brandy collaborated with producer Rodney Jerkins and his Darkchild production and songwriting team on the majority of the album's composition, while Mike City, Warryn Campbell, and Keith Crouch contributed additional production.
Brandy credited Whitney Houston, Kim Burrell and Enya for inspiring her to push the limits of her voice and vocal arrangements. Jerkins credited Michael Jackson, Brandy's voice, and his experiences at European nightclubs for influencing the sound of the album. Her prior relationship and then-private relationship with Darkchild in-house producer Big Bert inspired the lyrics and song concepts. Musically, Full Moon is an R&B and pop album that incorporates various genres such as 2-step garage, electro, and soul.
The album was initially met with mixed reviews from critics, but later earned retrospective acclaim from musicians, singers, and producers, primarily for Brandy's vocal work and the album's lasting impact on R&B. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 and atop the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, selling 156,000 copies in its first week, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling over one million copies in the United States. Full Moon was nominated for several awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The album spawned three singles–"What About Us?", "Full Moon" and "He Is".
Background In June 1998, Norwood released her second album Never Say Never. Boosted by the success of its number-one lead single "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Monica, it facilitated Norwood in becoming a viable recording artist with cross-media appeal. In total, the album sold sixteen million copies worldwide and spawned seven singles, including Norwood's second number-one song, the Diane Warren-penned "Have You Ever?". Also in 1998, Norwood made her big screen debut as Karla Wilson, a supporting role in the slasher sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. which garnered her an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Female Performance. The following year, she co-starred with Diana Ross in the telefilm drama Double Platinum about an intense, strained relationship between a mother and daughter. Both Norwood and Ross served as executive producers of the movie, which features original songs from Never Say Never and Ross's Every Day Is a New Day (1999).
In November 1999 Norwood was hospitalized for dehydration and exhaustion, which was later revealed to be related to a nervous breakdown that resulted from her then-hectic unhealthy lifestyle as well as an abusive relationship. Frightened by the idea that a yet-to-be-made third album would not be able to live up to the success of her previous albums, Norwood went on a lengthy hiatus to reflect and introspect. "I needed to rejuvenate, get my creative juices flowing, balance my life with some privacy, to find my confidence, find my love of music again," she told Jet magazine in 2002. In mid-2000, she started refocusing herself on her musical career, contributing songs to albums such as Urban Renewal (2001) and the Osmosis Jones soundtrack (2001). During this time her voice started to change, she had developed a scratchy, evocative edge to her voice and now having a deeper and warmer tone with a textured lower register and notably stronger head voice.
Recording and production
In fall 2000, Norwood finally began conceiving ideas for a third studio album with the Atlantic label. While Rodney Jerkins, the main producer of her previous album Never Say Never, and his Darkchild crew, including Fred Jerkins III and LaShawn Daniels, had been working on several new songs for the singer's upcoming project in hopes of recreating the winning chemistry of Never Say Never, Norwood wanted to make sure she was gaining more creative control over the project and thus, arranged meetings with all her writers and musicians to discuss the lyrical topics and sounds she wanted for the album. "I was involved from A to Z," she said. "Every song on the album was inspired by my life [...] I wanted to talk about how I feel on so many levels. I wanted to be in touch with all of my emotions and share them. I've taken three years off for myself and got a chance to find things I like to do, things I don't like and things I want to change about myself."
While Jerkins maintained his status as the album's executive producer, contributing most to its track listing with his team that also consisted of regular songwriters Nora Payne and Kenisha Pratt, Norwood also worked with frequent collaborators Mike City and Keith Crouch, as well as Warryn "Baby Dubb" Campbell, Stuart Brawley, Jason Derlatka, and Jerkins' cousin Robert "Big Bert" Smith, with whom she became romantically involved during the project. In addition, she also recorded with Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo from The Neptunes. With Norwood fearing that the pair's material would not fit the concept of the album and break her type of production unit, it was left unused. Rapper Ja Rule, singer Babyface and production duo Soulshock & Karlin were reportedly also involved into the project but none of their songs eventually made the album's final track listing.
Though Norwood has acknowledged that the creative focus of the album was very much on its technical realization and its sound, she declared Full Moon a concept album based on the development of a male-female relationship: "It's definitely the concept for the albumme falling in love, then going through some turbulence, and then, at the end, I find the person that I really want to be withso it's a great concept and it's a great experience that I had. I found out a lot about myself. I found a lot out about love, and I'm just happy to have that reflect in my music." Norwood decided to name the album after its title track and in reference to the previous three years of her life, stating: "I have done a complete circle and I feel whole. All of that's reflected in the music. That's why I entitled [my album] Full Moon. It's a concept album, it's autobiographical. Everything that I've gone through in the last three years is reflected."
In a 2022 retrospective of the Full Moon recording process, Norwood shared to Billboard, "[ Aaliyah and Timbaland ] were our biggest inspirations. Rodney will tell you that Timbaland is one of his favorite producers. I will tell you the same thing. Aaliyah, her tone, and she stacked vocals, too. She was so amazing. Her music still today is timeless. There’s a song on Full Moon, it’s called “Anybody,” and it’s like an Aaliyah song [...] We just loved how they did what they were guided to do. And I was like, “We gotta do that"."
Music and lyrics Full Moon opens with "B Rocka Intro", a shortened and rearranged version of "What About Us?" that starts with a robot voice. The title of the intro references producer Rodney Jerkins's nickname for Brandy. The first full song on the album is title track "Full Moon", producer Mike City's only contribution to Full Moon. A piano-dominated up-tempo song with a "lulling drumbeat and heavy bass," Norwood characterized it as urban contemporary, explaining that "Full Moon" is "pop and R&B at the same time [but] has a lot of elements to it." Lyrically, the song deals with a love at first sight during a full moon night. "I Thought", a Jerkins-crafted adamant break-up song about female empowerment, features electro bass lines and crunchy drums. Jerkins described it as an "anthem [and] a flip off" of Brandy's previous single "The Boy Is Mine." "When You Touch Me" is a ballad that revolves around the planning of a rendezvous. Initially conceived by Big Bert, it was significantly polished by Jerkins. Singer-producer Teddy Riley with whom Jerkins worked on Michael Jackson's Invincible (2001) during the creation of Full Moon appears on the talk box segment of the song.
The "hand-clapping, funky" song "Like This" sees Brandy continue to discuss her intimate desires with her lover. On "All in Me", a "futuristically funked-out" song built on keyboards and a sped up breakdown, the singer pleads with her lover to have faith in her, promising him she will provide whatever he needs. Jerkins produced a 2-step groove section for the middle of the song, following a gig in London months before where he was inspired by artists like Craig David and Artful Dodger. "Apart", produced by Keith Crouch, blends neo soul sensibilities, airy pop, and modern R&B with Middle Eastern music. Lyrically, it has the protagnoist lamenting for her partner's attention, resulting in her decision to leave him for the better. "Can We" is a lightweight hip-hop track coated in a batter of futuristic elements on which Brandy requests her partner to clarify their problems, while committing to working through them. "What About Us?" is an offbeat, aggressive high-tech uptempo song, seemingly "set amid a steel factory's sonic churns, whirs and crunches." Brandy described it as "edgy, sexy" and a "little bit ahead of its time." On post-break song "Anybody", another "edgy, eclectic offering," Brandy reminds a lover he is supposed to keep their hurtful relationship a secret.
"It's Not Worth It" finds Brandy trying to hold her relationship together after it has deteriorated to shambles. Initially penned in 1999, Jerkins built the song around Michael Jackson's ad-libbed vocals, resulting from a joint recording session for Jackson's 2001 studio album. "He Is", the next song, is a jazzy love song with "a classy piano and sparse drum track," produced by Warryn Campbell. Speaking about God in third person, Brandy was unaware the song was conceptualized as a gospel song by its writers. "Come a Little Closer" is a soft pop ballad that was originally written for NSYNC's Celebrity (2001) but eventually recorded by Canadian boy band I.D. Titled "Make It Last Forever," it appeared on their debut album Identically Different (2001). "Love Wouldn't Count Me Out" is a "sweeping" hymn that has the singer seeking understanding in the midst of romantic trial, while album closer "Wow" is an upbeat ballad that has Brandy singing about the joy of finally finding the perfect lover over a "sun kissed groove."
Title and artwork
In contrast to Jerkins’ predominant influence on the album, Brandy chose to title it Full Moon after her collaboration with City on the track of the same name. Although City was initially told that none of his songs would be included on the record as the tracklist was being finalized, Brandy, anticipating that a title track would not be removed without her consent, took deliberate steps to secure its inclusion, ultimately announcing that the album would bear the song's name to prevent it from being sold to other artists. She felt that while the song "stuck out" and had a "completely different vibe" musically from the rest of the album, "Full Moon" still represented the essence of the record.