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Some credit for the simmering romanticism of Secrets must go to songwriters/producers Antonio "LA" Reid and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, who melodicize love with a fascinated faith as idealistic as the purest John Donne. Quiet but never quiescent, idylls like "Find Me a Man," "Why Should I Care," "Talking in His Sleep" -- even "You're Makin' Me High," the CD's hit single -- harmonize so smoothly and move so gently, they make perfect love feel almost easy. Braxton the singer has other ideas. She imposes an anxious difficulty on every love lyric, moving as slowly as she can through a slow song, one word at a time. Her velvety alto seems a bridge of sighs; she nourishes the unsuccessful hours of a love affair with as much care as she graces its brief flurries of certainty. And does it -- from the moment "Come On Over Here" begins to glow till the last nervous ripple of "In the Late of Night" relaxes -- with more specificity of fervor than she did on her focused and fervent debut. **** Toni Braxton
SECRETS
(LaFace/Arista)
-- Michael Freedberg
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