Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 09/27/2005
Libra marks
Toni Braxton's departure from
Arista, her longtime label. It was a stormy relationship that ended with the fast death of 2002's fine
More Than a Woman. Only one
Neptunes-produced single was spun off from it, which peaked somewhere in the eighties of the Hot 100. Half a year after the album's release,
Braxton was off
Arista and on the
Universal-distributed
Blackground, but
Libra didn't surface until fall of 2005. (Granted,
Braxton's no stranger to protracted gaps in her release schedule.)
Libra offers no surprises. It's lean and balanced, just like all other
Braxton albums, though too many songs are tepid and merely functional for background listening, so it winds up a safe distance from the likes of the self-titled debut and
Secrets.
"Take This Ring," produced by
Rich Harrison, adds some unexpected rambunctiousness, yet it's about one-tenth as exciting as
Amerie's like-sounding
"1 Thing" (also
Harrison's work). Beyond the obvious single choices -- produced by big names like
Scott Storch and
Bryan-Michael Cox -- two songs handled by
the Underdogs'
Antonio Dixon (
"Sposed to Be" and
"Finally") are as sublime and plush as any other pair in
Braxton's catalog. Although this is her spottiest album to date, her fans shouldn't have any trouble appreciating it.
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
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