the new toni braxton album is #normcore

After years of being told she was dated, that "the old Toni Braxton way is played out", she had to be coaxed back into the studio at all, let alone to write songs: "At first, I was just venting, not making music." But eventually, a new project began to take shape. The scars from her recent divorce were still fresh; Edmonds's own marriage had ended after 13 years in 2005. Braxton, still reeling from self-doubt, felt she wasn't ready to make a solo album. For 20 years, the two had occasionally mooted the idea of a collaborative album, but there had never been a pressing reason to make it. Now, there was. The result is Love, Marriage & Divorce, a multifaceted look at the arc of a relationship (the emphasis, unsurprisingly, is on the D of the title) that's by turns wry, confused, lustful and vindictive. It sounds more 90s than any amount of current 90s revivalism, but less due to nostalgia than a "rebirth" after years of trying to chase trends for Braxton. via