Brandy: Human

Brandy Norwood was last heard pondering her future in music on her excellent 2004 album Afrodisiac - so her return, after a four-year hiatus that saw her involved in a car crash, is a surprise. Human is a thoughtful, intimate work on which Norwood sings movingly about fragility and fear. "Play me a song about heartache - I swear I can sing every word," she pleads on Piano Man. Something's Missing is an astonishing near-a cappella on which Brandy is accompanied by multiple versions of herself - humming a droning bassline, providing an insistent rhythm. The album's finest moment comes when Norwood turns to face the world, though: Right Here (Departed) is a cosmic, ride-or-die declaration of epic scope.