Platinum & Gold Collection
BMG Heritage released Toni Braxton s Platinum & Gold Collection in 2004, a good time for a sweeping roundup of the singer's bounty of hits from the mid-'90s. Her once chart-topping career had gone from red-hot to a bare simmer by this point. Her last substantial hit, "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" (from her lukewarm album The Heat , had come in 2000, and her two subsequent albums -- Snowflakes (2001) and More Than a Woman (2002) -- had failed to spawn any substantial hits of their own. This dry spell, which sans "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" stretches all the way back to 1997, is a stark contrast to the mid-'90s, when she was regularly scaling the charts with huge hits like "Another Sad Love Song," "Breathe Again," "You Mean the World to Me," "Un-break My Heart," and "You're Making Me High," to just list her biggest crossover hits. This Platinum & Gold Collection rounds up and remasters most of those more substantial hits from Braxton s past, in the process showcasing just how many great songs she'd recorded back in the mid-'90s, when she was among the biggest of big stars. However, there's a catch -- this isn't a be-all, end-all compilation of Braxton s greatest hits. It includes only 12 songs, and a few of them are latter-day middling hits, namely "A Better Man" and "Hit the Freeway," the two token inclusions from More Than a Woman These songs are good, but they're not great, especially relative to songs like, say, "You're Making Me High," one of Braxton s best and one that's unfortunately missing here (a very glaring omission). So while Braxton s Platinum & Gold Collection is a nice compilation -- one that includes many of her most memorable hits and does so in first-rate fashion, in terms of remastering as well as packaging -- it's a compilation that is sure to leave you unsatisfied. You'd be better off spending the extra money to pick up a more definitive collection like the 18-track Ultimate Toni Braxton from 2003 than this 50-minute budget-line CD. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
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Credits »
Babyface - Producer
Babyface - Remixing
David Foster - Arranger
David Foster - Producer
Toni Braxton - Main Performer
R. Kelly - Producer
R. Kelly - Remixing
Vassal Benford - Producer
Keith Crouch - Producer
Vincent Herbert - Producer
Keri Lewis - Vocal Producer
Andrea Martin - Arranger
Andrea Martin - Producer
Mac Quayle - Producer
Mac Quayle - Remixing
L.A. Reid - Producer
Daryl Simmons - Producer
Dennis Drake - Mastering
Mark Pitts - Producer
Hex Hector - Producer
Hex Hector - Remixing
Ivan Matias - Arranger
Ivan Matias - Producer
Mathieu Bitton - Art Direction
Mathieu Bitton - Design
The Neptunes - Producer
Andrew Skurow - Liner Notes
Gretchen Brennison - Compilation Producer
Gerrard C. Baker - Producer
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