Album Review: Toni Braxton and Babyface- Love, Marriage, and Divorce

The other day, I went to Target to pick up a copy of the fourth season of Downton Abbey, because it’s a program my wife and I enjoy watching, and as I walked by the slim pickings of the music section, on a “Coming Soon” advertisement, I saw the cover art for the album, Love, Marriage, and Divorce, by Toni Braxton and Babyface.

Whoa whoa whoa. Hol up. Toni Braxton AND Babyface? Yo, 1994 called ya’ll, and it wants two of its BIGGEST NAMES IN TOP 40 R&B BACK.

But seriously though, I mos def fucks with “When Can I See You Again.” Like, that song is my shit. That is probably one of my favorite songs to come out of the 90s, no joke. And for real—how can you not like a song like “Unbreak My Heart?” UNBREAK isn’t even a word, B. Like my spellchecker is telling me that shit is not a word and I’m like, “Spellcheck I don’t give a fuck, you feel me?”

So a few days later, I thought to do a quick Google search on this album, and lo and behold, Toni Braxton and Babyface got together and made this pseudo-concept album about the very things it is named after—love, marriage, and divorce.

Simply put, this album is incredible. Not even kidding, B. For real. This is so refreshing to hear—it is honestly like the 90s never came to an end, and Babyface is still just sitting around, cranking out amazing R&B hit after amazing hit. Love, Marriage, and Divorce does an impeccable job of capturing the essence of what worked for both he and Braxton in their heyday, but it successfully avoids coming off as nostalgic for the sake of nostalgia, or sounding derivative of itself.

Fittingly, the album opens with the song "Roller Coaster." That, coupled with the mention of a Merry Go Round in at least two songs, lets you know that the record is non-linear. Braxton and Babyface have not crafted a "TRUE" concept album, in the sense that it begins in better times of a relationship, and over the course of the next 45 minutes, you track it through until its downfall.

The songs are loosely tied together, and are structured in in a way that things start out rough, things get worse, things maybe get better, and then it ends with a track called "The D Word," so I'll let you use your imagination to figure out how this story wraps up.

In today's R&B Pop landscape, where countless artists rely on studio trickery, Auto Tune software, heavy synths, etc-- something like this is seriously refreshing in its purity. Both Toni Braxton and Babyface sound great. The record as a whole is smooth, it's fun, it's funky and soulful, and it’s well thought out. I mean, it's a song cycle about the dissolution of a relationship. It takes work to make a record like this.

There isn’t a bad song on Love, Marriage, and Divorce. Even the one clunker, “Heart Attack,” a post-disco groove that isn’t terrible by any means—it’s just not as flat out great as the other ten songs on the record. There’s a restrained, palpable tension on “Roller Coaster;” there’s the confusing, fighting as a metaphor for sex, give and take on “Sweat;” there’s a wink to “When Can I See You Again” with the acoustic guitar plucks and slaps on the slow jam “Where Did We Go Wrong?”; and then there’s the clever sequencing of the “solo” tracks back to back—Babyface’s “I Hope That You’re Okay,” followed by Braxton’s “I Wish,” where she wishes nothing but misery on her former lover, and his new flame—it makes for a very emotional juxtaposition, giving equal time to both sides of a divorce story: Babyface feeling remorse for his former love, wishing her well, while on the other hand, Braxton is on the verge of putting all his stuff in a car, lighting it on fire at the end of her driveway, and walking away.

Within the second half, there are some brief glimmers of hope—there is the astoundingly triumphant sounding “Reunited.” And I guess it should sound triumphant, since it brings the promise (albeit a false promise) of a happy resolution to the two characters Braxton and Babyface play on the record. Prior to that, “Take it Back” sets the stage for said resolution—“Baby let’s take it back, back to the way it was,” they sing together, the track is just smoove as fuck, and almost playful sounding at times, as a way of conveying the hope in the lyrics.

On the closing track, “The D Word,” both Babyface and Braxton express how difficult it is moving on after the dissolution of their relationship, what it’s like trying to meet new people, and how they still carry feeling for one another. It’s a surprisingly moving song, given the rising levels of animosity that the characters they’ve created have felt for one another throughout the album, but again, it’s a clever trick, showing that love, marriage, and divorce, is truly a roller coaster or emotions.

There’s really no clear resolution by the end of Love, Marriage, and Divorce, but by the time the record ends, you don’t feel slighted by that fact—even though you may get emotionally attached to the characters Braxton and Babyface play on the record. Or at least I did anyway. You’ll also want to maybe dance a long to some of the songs, because the beats are so dope, and you maybe also want to sing along with the refrains, since Babyface is so fucking good at writing hooks.

My enthusiasm for this may come as a surprise to some of you who read this blog regularly, and know my love of 90s hip-hop, shoegaze, and most things that lean in an indie direction, but the truth is as a young man in the 90s, Top 40 R&B was inescapable, and as an adult, I’ve come to appreciate it as a genre. Love, Marriage, and Divorce is a great throwback to a sound that you really don’t hear very often. It’s a complex record—well made, well written, and the entire idea behind it is incredibly commendable.

Love, Marriage, and Divorce is available now via Motown, and if you buy it Target, you get three bonus tracks.