Toni Braxton Toni Braxton (1993){arista Bmg 74321 16268 2}

BMG Heritage released Toni Braxton's Platinum & Gold Collection in 2004, a good time for a sweeping roundup of the singer's bounty of hits from the mid-'90s. Her once chart-topping career had gone from red-hot to a bare simmer by this point. Her last substantial hit, "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" (from her lukewarm album The Heat), had come in 2000, and her two subsequent albums – Snowflakes (2001) and More Than a Woman (2002) – had failed to spawn any substantial hits of their own. This dry spell, which sans "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" stretches all the way back to 1997, is a stark contrast to the mid-'90s, when she was regularly scaling the charts with huge hits like "Another Sad Love Song," "Breathe Again," "You Mean the World to Me," "Un-break My Heart," and "You're Making Me High," to just list her biggest crossover hits.

Most modern-day female pop singers start their careers doing their sexy, stylish dance-oriented material then settle into a career as an adult contemporary crooner. Toni Braxton didn't follow that route. She started the '90s singing elegant, refined quiet storm ballads and ended it singing sleek dance-pop tunes as she slinked around in skimpy outfits. She wasn't the only one of her peers to follow this trajectory – Mariah Carey pretty much did the same thing, only to the extreme – but it's a little odd to listen to Braxton evolve from the sophisticated urban contemporary crooner to oversexed R&B thrush, even if it's not a bad thing at all. One thing that elevated Braxton above her peers is that she was a controlled, powerful singer who rarely oversang, and she had a good selection of material, much of it written or co-written by Babyface. That's why her 18-track hits collection Ultimate Toni Braxton works well even through her shifts in style – she is a confident enough performer to sell both the slow romantic ballads and material that swings harder.

If there's any problem with More Than a Woman, Toni Braxton's fourth album, it's that it's so consistent, so much a continuation of its predecessor, The Heat, that it may be hard to pinpoint distinctive characteristics. Unlike that album, it lacks a single as undeniable as "He Wasn't Man Enough," yet much of this album is in a similar sexy spirit. It also doesn't have any ballads as seductive as "Un-break My Heart." In fact, few of the songs stand out, yet that doesn't mean they're bland or generic. They're simply cut from the same cloth and fit well together, particularly since they're given a nice, stylish production that's rarely flashy.

Originally formed in Yorkshire, England, in 1966, Smokie hit the British pop charts several times during the late '70s with updated psychedelic pop, influenced by the band's stay on Mickie Most's Rak Records as well as the writers of most of the band's hit material, Rak's Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman…

As her 1993 blockbuster debut approached its 25th anniversary, Toni Braxton proceeded to collect accolades while moving forward. Her duets album with Babyface was designated Best R&B Album in 2015 by the Recording Academy – making her a Grammy winner in three decades – and the connection with her foundational audience was reaffirmed in 2017 with a Soul Train Legend Award. Her every-few-years release schedule was maintained with this short album, in which she responds to a habitually philandering lover with her distinctive mix of fire and finesse. This has more of the former element than any previous Braxton release.