Pitchfork rated Chris Brown’s 12th album 1.3 out of 10. The dek is the sentence on this graphic. Staff writer Alphonse Pierre used the rest of the review to say the record is not romantic, funny, sexy, dancey, soulful, or honest. It is hit-chasing music for people already in the Chris Brown culture war.

BROWN came out May 8, 2026, on RCA. Twenty-seven tracks. The cover is the pose in the graphic: hat, tan suit, lying on the floor like a vintage session. Pitchfork’s own social post was blunter than the score. They called the album a piece of shit and asked why write about it at all.

Pierre’s argument is that Brown’s voice now sits under a digital sheen that does not sound human. He flagged “Colours” as a late-MJ robot ballad where “I’m scarred” never lands. He flagged “Honey Pack” as Pretty Ricky run through a generator. He said the last 15 years of redemption talk is baked into the tracklist and that tiptoeing around Brown in the press only helps Brown.

Fans treated the number as a hit piece. “This has to be personal” was the reply-guy line. Team Breezy pointed at packed arenas and streaming totals and said an indie site does not get to bury a catalog that still sells. Early reports had the album No. 1 in dozens of Apple Music countries and on pace for a Billboard 200 top five with more than 70,000 units. Brown’s own posture was that if you are not a fan, go listen to somebody else.

1.3 is ugly even by Pitchfork standards. It was called one of the lowest scores of the 2020s. The site has handed mid scores to records that still went platinum. This one is a moral and aesthetic dump in one number.

The split is the usual Chris Brown split. The review says the music does not earn the comeback. The numbers say the comeback does not need the review. The graphic is the cover plus the one sentence that made the score travel.