I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a new music announcement than the announcement that I spotted from Toni Braxton, just a while ago. I just recently started following her on Instagram after playing some of her albums, one night, and spotted her talking about a new single release that was upcoming. A song called “Deadwood”.
Her last album was a duet album with Babyface and that really brought her back to the albums that I was actually playing, recently. I loved hearing the duet album. It was like a homecoming to hear her with Babyface on his type of sound. I could almost enter a corny little sentence here like I felt that I could breathe again…. Pun intended.
This time, she teamed up with other people and for a moment, during the intro of the song, I really thought “Deadwood”, combined with the cowboy head on her head, was going to reveal a country side of Toni that I never knew she had, but it only sticks with a slight influences before it releases it. As soon as the harmonies enter the song for the chorus, you already know that it’s Toni as Toni has always been. In fact, this song would lend itself very well for some cool remixes bringing it back to a sound like “You’re Making Me High”.
The song is partially about heartbreak, but more about finding the determination to change things. Whether that means she going for her man again or going for the start of a new life, is up to your interpretation.
It is a bit of a new thing to hear the guitar play the leading role in her music. R&B usually revolves more around the beat, lately, but the partial acoustic setting suits her well. Of course, I think Toni can pull off a lot with her voice. She could do jazz really well, too, if she would want to.
This song is part of an upcoming album, which for the first time in her career, will be receiving a parental advisory label. The album, “Sex & Cigarettes”, will be more forthcoming than other albums, because Toni feels more free, as she explained in an interview.
I’m happy to see her back. I believe (should fact check this, though) that she’s currently competing with sister Tamar, whom I believe has also just released new music. However, Toni has got more eggs in her basket. For years now, she’s also been building up an acting career in various TV movies and another movie will also be airing next year. She’s no deadwood at all.
