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ALBUM TITLE: The Heat
RATING: Good
Toni Braxton's evolution from pop songbird with the horrendous pixie haircut to sultry R&B diva has certainly not been a smooth transition, with a much-publicized bankruptcy battle to go with her Grammy Award� for Best New Artist. Well, it's a brand-new millennium, and she's certainly out to prove she's changed - for the better, a lot wiser, and a hell of a lot tougher. Her third studio album, �The Heat,� intends to raise her ante a few bars, as well as quite a few temperatures.
The change shows in her producers and songwriters. She is her own executive producer, and pulls out all the stops. Red-hot Rodney �Darkchild� Jerkins is recruited for the first single, the infectious �He�s Not Man Enough,� which recently peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. As if that weren�t enough, the rest of the album reads like a �Who�s Who� of the best R&B producers and songwriters in the business: Babyface, Diane Warren, Tommy Sims, the Casey Brothers, Daryl Simmons, David Foster, Pure Soul and Keith Crouch, among others. Dr. Dre and Left Eye Lopes of TLC rap on some tracks. Braxton even tries her hand at song-writing, with good friend Keri Lewis helping her out.
So does the change work? Some tracks are certainly easy-pleasing ones. �He Wasn�t Man Enough� certainly milks the �man isn�t worth it� line for all it�s worth, and the stellar �Gimme Some� has no qualms about expressing what Miss Braxton wants. �Maybe� is vintage Crouch (he's worked with Brandy), and �Never Just For A Ring� is nothing short of incredible production.
Some tracks fall short, though. Potential second single �Spanish Guitar,� while written by Queen of Radio Singles Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, is a second-rate �Unbreak My Heart.� Warren�s other donation, �I�m Still Breathing,� is a Whitney Houston�s �I Learned From The Best� clone. Almost all the Lewis-Braxton tracks are stone-cold (including, ironically, the title track).
Evolution may imply change, or, at the very least, growth in terms of a person's artistry and music. If Miss Braxton intended to show the world that, through her musical journey, she is a different woman, well-versed in the ways of the music industry, she has done so, and then some. Fans will think, though, that somewhere along the way, she may have forgotten about them and the Braxton music they grew to love. And that may be a crime that, ultimately, douses "The Heat."
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