Once upon a time, L.A. Reid and Babyface wrote a song for the "Boomerang" soundtrack titled "Love Shoulda Brought You Home," intended for Anita Baker. Schedules didn't match up, however, and the tune was instead handed to LaFace's recent discovery, Toni Braxton. Newcomer Braxton had some large shoes to fill indeed, but as it turned out, her ashen alto fit the blue, done-wrong-by-love lyrics to a T, and an R&B hit was launched. Will an entire project from a newcomer live up to such success?

Hell yes, and then some. Toni's self-titled debut reached out and touched not only R&B audiences but pop fans as well, with her heartfelt renditions of love's torments having the strongest effect. "Another Sad Love Song" is a woeful tale of a girl who can't even turn on the radio without being haunted by the one that got away, and "Breathe Again" finds our heroine resigning herself to life being all but over once her love affair is. These songs, laid over hip-hop and pop grooves respectively, have a melancholy element of blues riding underneath; "Seven Whole Days," however, is borderline jazz in both musical backdrop and vocal delivery.

As on almost anyone's debut, Toni's steps toward artistic self-discovery occasionally stumble: "Love Affair" is too similar to "Seven Whole Days" stylistically, and "Days" never suffers from too-hip lyrics like "I ain't down with O.P.P.," the likes of which are destined to sound drastically dated down the line. Furthermore, "Best Friend" features a sleepily predictable chord progression and lyrics about losing a lover to a best friend that are more melodrama than drama. Still, Toni proves that she can hang loose with the best of them "How Many Ways," a driving ballad that Mary J. Blige would no doubt love to sink her teeth into, and even keeps up with a danceable groove on "I Belong to You."

Flaunting a maturity and intimacy that some of her later work wasn't privvy to, Toni Braxton's self-titled debut remains a significant effort in modern R&B.

When Toni first stepped onto the scene with this debut, she easily defined herself as an artist to watch out for with one of the best albums of the decade. This was released back in '93 when R&B wasn't all about money and power. With the production team of LA Reid & Babyface, you really couldn't go wrong at the time (as they were at the top of their game back then).

The album starts off with "Another Sad Love Song" and "Breathe Again", two crossover hits that worked wonders on both urban and pop stations. Her voice takes you on an emotional ride like few artists can - probably because of her low octave range with excellent ability (actually, this applies to every song on this album). Next is "Seven Whole Days" - a very soulful track. This was followed by "Love Affair", "Candlelight", and "Spending My Time With You", and while they aren't highlights to me, they are good songs nonetheless.

The album continues with "Love Shoulda Brought You Home", originally from the Boomerang Soundtrack, this was the track that launched her into the spotlight. Not a big hit, but it portrayed her as a well established soul artist when it was actually her debut. "I Belong To You" and "How Many Ways" were smaller crossover hits, "I Belong To You" being a fairly upbeat R&B song, and "How Many Ways" featuring haunting vocals. The third big crossover hit "You Mean The World To Me" followed in "Breathe Again's" footsteps as another great song. After this emotional rollercoaster, "Best Friend" can only look weak in comparison. The album finally finishes off with a "Breathe Again" Reprise.

For overall content, I would have to rate this as one of the strongest debut album's ever (easily Toni's best work to date), and in my opinion this gets my vote for album of the 90's. This is filled with many outstanding songs. If I had to pinpoint one, it would be "Another Sad Love Song", which edges out three others (Breathe Again, You Mean The World To Me, and Seven Whole Days) by a thread.

If you were introduced to Toni Braxton by her recent work, I would pick this up because her vocals are unbelievably strong . By today's standards its still a great album, more soulful than "The Heat", and more long-lasting than even "Secrets". An essential purchase for any fan of Soul/R&B.

By nearly all critical accounts, this album is a classic. Plain and simple. Whether you listen to rock, hip-hop, jazz, rap, adult contemporary, or anything else for that matter, this album is one of those albums that helped defined a musical decade. Songs like "Another Sad Love Song," "Breathe Again," "Seven Whole Days," "You Mean The World To Me," "How Many Ways," and "I Belong To You" were not only monsterously huge hits, but have stood the test of time to become 90's pop classics. The album also includes her 1992 Boomerang mini-movie "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" and some sweet, yet torrid love songs such as "Candlelight" and "Love Affair." Whether you are an R&B fan or not, there is no excuse for not having this essential CD in your collection.

Like many others out there, who remember Toni Braxton from the early 90s, and before she even started to grow her hair, I'm sure you may have been introduced to her in 1992, from the song, "Love Shoulda Brought You Home," or her duet with Babyface in, "Give You My Heart," both songs which are offered on the "Boomerang" soundtrack, which I thought I should add. Like many artists, the first album is sometimes the best one, or one of the better releases, probably because of the hunger to make it! Which I think may have been the case with this album, Toni was just putting out single-after-single on this album and that's what eventually made me buy it, or actually my dad, because I was too young at the time, but he bought it because there were so many good songs on the album! You had, "Love Shoulda Brought You Home," "Another Sad Love Song," "Breathe Again," "Seven Whole Days," "How Many Ways," which also had a remix, and "You Mean the World to Me." There's basically 11 songs on the album, and 6 out of 11 songs were released as singles, all the singles were hits, the only one that I think didn't do that well was, "How Many Ways," but there are basically more hits than filler on this album, and I think that's what a lot of Toni's more recent album have been missing, and not just Toni Braxton, but a lot of artists. A lot of artists are concerned with just putting out a few major singles and the rest is whatever, not too many people care to make a well-rounded album anymore!

Toni Braxton, was much younger at the time and still managed to sing about more mature topics, and her experiences going through a bad relationship, which led her to make, what I think is her best album! Toni found a way not just to appeal to an R&B audience, but also a pop audience, which helped her success.

Remember this is just my opinion, and my view, so please don't jump all over me, if you don't agree!

Ashlei

I love this Cd. She's real R&B!!! Not like most of these singers today. To this day

i still listen to her cd. If u dont have one then go cop a copy of this.