The legendary Grammy winning singer/ producer/songwriter/musician Babyface, and Grammy winning singer Toni Braxton released “Love, Marriage, & Divorce” on February 4th, 2014. This is an album fans have been waiting 20 years, to hear these two legends on an album together. From Toni’s debut on the 1992 Boomerang soundtrack “Give U My Heart”. Their chemistry is undeniable.
The first song to start the album off is the mid-tempo, “Rollercoaster”. It’s explaining their love is like a rollercoaster. “One minute, I love you. The next minute I hate you” an indescribable emotion, one goes through in a rocky relationship. That leads to the second track, “Sweat”. Very sensual and vibrant song, I can see this being a fan favorite off the album. The song is basically saying if you want to fight, we can take it to the bed instead, and sweat it out. The 1st single off the album “Hurt You” comes after, as well as the second single “Where Did We Go Wrong”.
In which, that song brilliantly follows up to the 5th song “I Hope That You’re Okay”. Which you can imagine after you ask the question, “Where did we go wrong”? The solution would be to leave the relationship. The song is just Babyface’s vocals, so this would mean this is his or the male perspective of dissolving the relationship. Then you have Toni’s response to “I Hope That You’re Okay”, which is the soft ballad “I Wish”. Hoping that whoever the new woman he gets with gives him a disease. Not enough to kill him, but just enough to make him suffer the way he did to her. You can interpret this any kind of way, as being unfair or what not. But concept wise it’s brilliant, because sometimes that’s the woman’s perspective in a break up.
Then the next song is “Take It Back”. A Babyface solo track asking if it’s possible they can go back to the way it used to be. “Reunited”, you can see it’s the part of the album where it’s the last attempt at reconciling the relationship/marriage. “I’d Rather Be Broke” is another solo track from Toni. The production build up in the song was really cohesive with her vocals, as well as the background vocals. In the lyrics, she is saying that she’d rather be broke than put it up with the individual’s behavior. Creatively speaking, this is the demise of the relationship. “Heart Attack” is the next track, a fun up-beat tempo. Then the last song is “The D Word”. Babyface in the first verse is giving a play-by-play of the beginning stage of the divorce. Simply saying in the chorus even though they’re not together, she’ll always have his heart.
This is really a conceptual album, so you really can’t break it up into sections and skip songs like it’s a mixtape. You have to listen to the album completely. It’s like hearing a love story unfold and the different stages some people go through from love, marriage, and divorce. Overall production and concept, I will give this album 5 stars out of 5.
“Love, Marriage, & Divorce” is available in stores right now and for digital purchase via iTunes and Amazon MP3. Also available for purchase at Amazon.