The Heat - Braxton, Toni (CD 2000)

After A huge success with the good, but overrated "Secrets"
album in 1996, Toni Braxton also went through a rough and also widely publicized bankruptcy in 1998. Two years later,
Toni willed all of her creative energy, sans the creatvity into her third studio album, 2000's "The Heat", with which she had a moderate success with the single "He Wasn't Man Enough".

Now, while I am a Toni Braxton fan per say, My dedication and loyalty have waned considerably since this album's release. The vocals are still lingering around for the ride and her annoyingly familiar lyrical concepts are hanging out as well. A good example is the aforementioned single "He Wasn't Man Enough". The song is direceted at whichever woman her ex-boyfriend is currently dating and Toni is running down all the events and happenings of their waste-of-time relationship. Her vocals are ok, and are as well accompanied by an R&B rhythm with little handclaps in the background which do nothing to make the song more appealing to the listener, but create an unusually weak way to begin an album.

"The Heat" Picks up a lot of the slack generated by the first track. The music is a clean smooth mix of Jazz and R&B. Toni's vocals are much stronger on this track than the preceeding track, and she really sells the song. The Lyrics are also a little different and don't use and abuse her well known "I hate him, I loved him, I dumped Him, I humped him" lyrical concepts. The song talks about having a summer party when the season is almost over and how fun it will be. This was a refreshing turn of events.

"Spanish Guitar" Is a strange track, sounding suspiciously similar to oh...I dunno-"Un-Break My Heart"? The same smooth music with it's cool rhythms and sleek synth with a timeless class. The music is a total rip-off of prior work to me, and frankly the lyrics and vocals don't redeem the recycled music; "I wish that I was in your arms like that spanish Guitar, and you would play me all night long. I'd Be your song." I think I can sing like her-Hold on-here goes-Thissssssssssss soooooonnnnnnnnnggg blowwwwwws and was a waaaaaaaste of tiiiiiimmmmmmmee!!!!! How'd I do?

"Just Be A Man About It" dosen't do a whole lot better either. It features DR. Dre which was a downer from the beginning, and Though the lyrics and musical aspects of this track are ok, The vocals barely make it through the song, and Dre chronically returns throughout the song with his answering machine ad-libs, which quickly wear out their welcome. "Gimme Some" also features rapper "Left Eye" from TLC, who I do do think is an excellent rapper, but I also believe its a tad bizzare and wrong for her to be doing a song with Toni Braxton, for obvious reasons. This track in particular shows clearly that Toni is trying to take on a more radio friendly, youth oriented persona, which is a bad idea because she is really neglecting her older fanbase who gave her her record sales and successful (At least Up Until Now) career. This song features a thumping hip-hop beat with all sorts of funky urban rhythms and it really is a fun song with great lyrics...for someone like Ashanti, but for Toni Braxton, this ain't cuttin' it.

"The Art Of Love" is filler. Pure, bonafide filler. It has no lyircs and if there are any they are hidden behind 3:47 of an overproduced mess they believed to be music. Toni is whispering all sorts of smut in the background like some brothel layabout, things like "Can I sit on your lap" and "MMM. You feel so sexy." This is a completely idiotic track. I myself like the occasional instrumental, and this is one of the worst I have ever heard. Not to mention an annoying computerized voice to introduce this pile of barf; "And Now The Art Of Love". This goes no where and simply foreshadows the apocalypse to come in Toni's career. This was a waste of album space.

Things improve with "Speaking In Tongues" which has a classy jazzy musical arragement, with lyrics which though they can be a little direct and dirty at times, fit well with this song and Toni's vocals are above average at least fro what Ive heard on this album. "Maybe" is an ok song and it only gets to be "OK" because of the creativity in the lyrics. The song talks about her man coming over and how they sex each other up, so the lyrical concept itself is same ole', same ole', but the approach to it is highly rhythmatic and truly worth a listen. Her Vocals are good, and she sings sort of fast at times it sounds like rapping but its vivid and fresh for her. "You've been Wrong" is boring however, and only contributes to the many weaknesses to be found here. This widely recognized story of her man doing her wrong for the billionth time is extremely dull and boring. It is backed by a typical, mid-tempo R&B suite, and her lyrics are no better. Basically what they all boil down to is that he's been cheating, she knows, he wrong and bad, and shes so hurt and the wounds will never fully heal. It basically sucks.

"Never Just For A Ring" wraps it up. This song sounds a bit more heartfelt and well done that the previous track, with better lyrics, but a poor rhythm and melody. The vocals also fall a bit short. They seem to go in and out from time to time. The heartfelt part I mentioned are the lyrics, which tell us that she won't ever go into a bad marriage just for a ring, because it should be more than material possessions and such.

Last Thoughts? "The Heat" was a big transition for Toni Braxton. It was her mid-crossover from her signature ballads to Funky hip-hop garbage. The ballads are still around, but lack the originality and colorful presentation that they recived on previous efforts. They say the third album is the one that makes or breaks an artist, and in this case this one has definitely left Toni cracked on a limb or two. The vocals are still pretty good, but I don't think she has really given her all, Good lyrics are few and far between, and as far as production is concerned, when Toni Braxton is teaming up with Dr. Dre to do a song, you know something is definitely wrong. Now I do give her props for keeping Babyface around for the ride and for the effort, but "The Heat" barely lives up to its catchy title and needs a little more than a miracle to be a great-or at least good album. I would offer words of encouragement for the next album but that would be a waste of time because we all know what came after "The Heat". We know all too well.