Secrets - Braxton, Toni (CD 1996)

In 1993-94, Toni Braxton s debut album blew up like hotcakes. With a benign image and a set of brokenhearted ballads like Breathe Again and Seven Whole Days , she collected several million in sales, as well as a handful of awards including the Best New Artist Grammy. Despite all this success, Toni was a little lacking in the personality/titillation department. She was always covered up, she had a sensible short haircut, and she basically seemed like Anita Baker s heartbroken little sister.

From an aesthetic sense, her second album, 1996 s Secrets , announced a change. The short, businesslike haircut has been replaced by a honey-colored golden weave and the sensible outfits had been replaced by well not very much of anything at all. The sassy smile she sports on her first album had been replaced by a come-hither leer. Looks-wise, this was unquestionably a VERY different Toni Braxton. Musically, though, Secrets offers very little in the way of surprises. For most of the album, Toni s still the Queen of Somebody Done Me Wrong . I can t fault her or her producers for creating that vibe, either. Toni s husky, dusky voice was perfect for neo-torch songs, and the ones on this album are performed very well. Secrets is the album you put on while you re fresh from a breakup, licking your wounds and saying that your lost love has no idea what they re missing.

Anyway, this album generally follows the template of her first album-lush ballads that spotlight Toni s aching voice. Label head/mentor/producer/chief songwriter Babyface does a good job here. One moderate new wrinkle comes in the form of several songs that prominently feature acoustic guitar. Let it Flow , technically the album s first single, originally appeared on the soundtrack to Waiting to Exhale , where it was a highlight. Over a mournful yet simple melody, Toni realizes that sometimes you just have to let relationships work through naturally. Lines like Don t nobody want no broke hearts don t nobody want no two time losers give way to a chorus that Toni ends with the words everything s gonna work out fine, y know . It s one of her best ballad performances, as is There s No Me Without You , which could be a country ballad with just a slight uptick in the twanginess of the guitar.

Most of the other songs have some kind of ear-candy factor beyond Toni s voice that makes them memorable. R. Kelly contributes I Don t Want To , one of his more standard and less salacious ballads. The majestic yet simple melody compares favorably to Michael Jackson s You Are Not Alone , another song to come from the pen of Kelly. Tony Rich s Come On Over Here finds Toni at her most playfully seductive, with a gently bumping bass groove and the assertion that I got more than you know what to do with . Meanwhile, How Could An Angel Break My Heart is a ballad designed to push every single emotional button in your body. It s got almost a classical vibe to it, and it s one of the very few instances where you can use good song and featuring Kenny G. in the same sentence.

Then, of course, there are the album s two biggest hits. You re Makin Me High marked the biggest stylistic departure for Toni. Babyface co-wrote this song with Groove Theory member Bryce Wilson, and the song s booming bass and slight hip-hop edge mark this as one of the more atypical Face productions. So do lyrics that feature Toni talking about get(ting) undressed and touching (her) private parts . It s amazing what a weave and a boob job can do for the sexual self! Then, of course, there s Un-break My Heart . This dramatic pop ballad became Toni s biggest hit, and the one song she ll probably be known for the rest of her career. If you re at all familiar with songwriter Diane Warren and producer David Foster, you ll know exactly where this song is going even if you ve never heard it before. It s well-sung, for sure, but to me, it s just another cringe-inducing adult contemporary ballad, and it mucks up what is a very solid R&B record.

Secrets stands as one of the better traditional R&B albums of the Nineties. Toni is, was and always will be a solid vocalist, but, like most producer-driven artists, she often finds herself at the mercy of her material. This wasn t detrimental at this particular point-after all, she had Tony Rich, R. Kelly, Jon B. (who produced the closing ballad In the Late of Night ) as well as Babyface at the top of his game. However, after Secrets , Toni s albums gradually lost steam as she decided to team up with whoever had the hottest records of the moment as opposed to the producers and writers had the most simpatico with her. The smooth and seductive (and occasionally heartbroken) Secrets remains Toni s shining moment as an artist.

"Secrets" by Toni Braxton
Released 1996 on La Face/Arista Records
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars