Un-Break My Heart: The Remix Collection

Toni Braxton, the sultry alto who steamed up the nineties with her torch ballads, celebrated the sensual woman with her mid-tempos and scalded us with her dance songs has had a remarkable career. Her debut album in 1993, which was simply self titled, spawned some of the best R&B singles of the decade including the consummate sad love song Another Sad Love Song, the pledge of undying love with Breathe Again and the aching ode of vulnerability You Mean The World To Me. She soon followed that up with her equally successful and influential album simply titled Secrets in 1996. Despite a bankruptcy she managed to reach the top again with her third album, The Heat in 2000. Then she came out with More Than A Woman in 2002, which pretty much fell flat. There were some decent cuts on this album but over all it was quite disappointing for someone with so much talent. So, since this album she has put out three greatest hits albums. Ultimate Toni Braxton, Platinum and Gold Collection and this spring’s Unbreak My Heart: The Remix Collection.

Unlike Mariah Carey or Britney Spears, Toni's voice has definitely been a lot more focused than manufactured with her remixes. Unbreak My Heart: The Remix Collection is a nice change of pace from the typical patched-together cash-in compilation of remixes. Hex Hector is brought in to mix ten of the best-known club mixes done for Toni Braxton, and he does so in a way that allows enough room for the bulk of each track to play, rather than showing off quick-wristed skills that would likely knock the wind out of the selections. The mixmasters employed on Unbreak My Heart include Peter Rauhofer, Junior Vasquez, David Morales, and Frankie Knuckles. Rauhofer does justice to He Wasn’t Man Enough, but Morales butchers the usually infectious You’re Making Me High. Un-break My Heart gets done over twice to differing degrees of success by Soul Hex and Knuckles. Highlights – many of which were previously available on vinyl or CD singles only – include the HQ2 mix of Hit the Freeway, Frankie Knuckles' mix of Un-break My Heart, and Peter Rauhofer's mix of He Wasn't Man Enough.

Toni Braxton was one of the most popular and commercially successful female R&B singers of the '90s, thanks to her ability to straddle seemingly opposite worlds. Braxton was soulful enough for R&B audiences, but smooth enough for adult contemporary; sophisticated enough for adults, but sultry enough for younger listeners; strong enough in the face of heartbreak to appeal to women, but ravishing enough to nab the fellas. Wielding such broad appeal, Braxton managed to score not one, but two albums that sold over eight million copies; naturally, they were accompanied by a long string of hit singles on the pop and R&B charts. Unfortunately, the songs here on Unbreak My Heart: The Remix Collection seem to be a little bit more repetitious, and replayed, rather than showing a bit more widely detailed versions of her tracks. There just could've been a little more variety here on this album rather than only a few songs remixed more than once. Especially where other good songs like Another Sad Love Song, Breathe Again, and Just Be A Man About It weren't even featured in remixed versions on this collection at all. Hopefully, Toni is hard at work on new material.