Spell My Name

Recorded for Island, Spell My Name follows the Def Jam-issued Sex & Cigarettes by only two years. That's the shortest period between proper Toni Braxton studio albums. Granted, this is similarly compact, even with its appended tracks: the solo version of the pre-album single "Do It," and another Babyface collaboration, a devotional ballad grounded in classic Southern soul that doesn't fit with what precedes it. The title song is pulsing modern quiet storm concerning a dalliance with a lover half Braxton's age, played by duet partner Johnny Yukon with Drake-like deference (thereby flipping the standard older man/younger woman scenario more than her Trey Songz collaboration a decade earlier). Apart from the finely applied strings and a sense of temptation, it's not really representative of the album. Braxton spends the rest of the set succumbing to desire recognized as ill-fated, mourning unfulfillment, waving off a cheating ex, and swearing during the emotional peak -- in one of many piano ballads -- that she wishes nothing but the best for the one who got away, while each wrenched note conveys devastation. Only the pleasant if indistinctive neo-disco opener is uptempo. The rest is mostly glowering ballads and conflicted slow jams, exemplified by the smoldering slow stepper "Move On," featuring the compatible H.E.R. on sympathetic background vocals and guitar. The material tends toward routine, but Braxton's elegant distress cuts through everything with conviction.