Urban World

Toni Braxton – Pulse

 

Pulse is the sixth studio album by American R&B singer/songwriter Toni Braxton, It has been her first album in five years; however Toni has made several media appearances in between that time with her competing on TV show Dancing with the Stars, health scares and recent separation from partner Keri Lewis. I would say that is plenty of life experiences to be drawing on for the material for ‘Pulse’. 

The opening song on the album starts off strong with the ballad “Yesterday”, which features hard hitting, live-sounding drums. Toni walks away from a relationship where she no longer feels love. Trey Songz is able to give the song balance therefore appealing to both men and women and attracting the attention of the younger audience who are not as familiar with her great work accompanied the heartfelt music video they did recently.

‘Lookin’ At Me’ stands out as it acts as an interval on album almost complete of slow tracks, This song had a leaked version which featured Sean Paul, whether it was a remix or a genuine version the Sean Paul feature did not make it to the official album release. Whilst sounding a little generic it gives the album a refreshing sound amongst the ballads.

The unassuming lyrics and arrangement of “Why Won’t You Love Me” and the Michael Warren-produced “No Way” both give Braxton room to spread her seductive tones in the classical way that she had abandoned over the last two albums. 

With production that includes David Foster, Harvey Mason, Jr., Frank E, Oak, Lucas Secon, and Dapo Torimiro, Toni Braxton has indeed drawn upon her strengths in ballads on this album, she has spent less time trying to compete with the 20 year old artists musically and imagery; Truly demonstrating what she is renowned for. I would have to confess there were a little too many ballads on this album which meant there seemed to be little that separated one track from the rest. Becoming distracted whilst listening to a Grammy award winning artists’ album is definitely not a good look, but she definitely is a great artist and has done well to able to sign album deals and create music in such an arduous industry

2/5