Track Listing

1. Holiday Celebrate
2. Christmas In Jamaica
3. Snowflakes Of Love
4. Christmas Time Is Here
5. Santa Please...
6. ...Pretty Please (Interlude)
7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
8. This Time Next Year
9. The Christmas Song
10. Snowflakes Of Love (Brent Fischer Instrumental)
11. Christmas In Jamaica (Remix)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64803 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.com
Jumping high heels first into the Christmas genre, Toni Braxton has come up with a spectacular first effort. Teetering into smooth jazz territory, Braxton gives her sophisticated, breathy vocals a workout on this untraditional Yuletide collection. Instead of revamping old holiday standards, Braxton has cowritten seven new songs--with husband Keri "Mint Condition" Lewis, her sister Tamar, David Foster, and Kenny "Baby Face" Edmonds--and has created what sounds more like a proper Toni Braxton album than a seasonal offering. When Braxton did decide to cover a classic, she choose more contemporary tunes such as perennial favorite "The Christmas Song," which she revives with aplomb and crisp pacing, and the beloved "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which she doesn't tinker with at all. Braxton also pulls Charlie Brown's "Christmas Time Is Here" out of mothballs and gives it a contemplative, melancholy spin that serves the tune well. "Snowflakes of Love" is penned by Braxton and Lewis, and uses the same instrumental that Memphis soul giant Isaac Hayes recorded for the soundtrack for 1974's Truck Turner, giving it a jazzy, masterful feel. The real standout on the album is the reggae-spun "Christmas in Jamaica" with the raunchy, comic vocals of Shaggy. Like the snowflakes it's named after, this CD is a real original. --Jaan Uhelszki

Customer Reviews

A PROJECT THAT WORKS FOR (AND BEYOND) THE CHRISTMAS SEASON...
A very nice blend of R&B, Soul, & Pop that can be played well past the Christmas Season. Standout Tracks include: "Holiday Celebrate", "Christmas Time Is Here" & "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (With a Full String Section!). We could have done without the 400th plus version of "The Christmas Song" (There's not to much more that can be done with this song). But overall a great package/production from Toni Braxton.

Christmas ain't right without it!
Every year I kick off of the holidays with this CD. I'll admit I'm a huge Toni fan, but this is not only a great Christmas set, its one of her best CDs period. I feel a little creepy listening to it June, but sometimes, when the mood hits, I do it anyway.

The first two songs are great but then. . . .
Toni Braxton's "Snowflakes" starts off with a blast! Braxton seductively pulls you right into the first two songs, "Holiday" and "Christmas in Jamaica" (featuring Shaggy)--both are funky, reggae-inspired upbeat numbers with great melodies that linger in the mind. On these numbers, Toni's voice is everything you want it to be: throaty, smoky, seductive and full of life. You can easily see why she was once for an all-too-brief time the most popular singer in the early-to-mid nineties. In fact, these first two numbers are so good that they almost make it worth the price of the CD.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album devolves into the kind of boring middle-of-the-road mush which would not be out of place on an average Kenny G album. The material isn't helped by Braxton's languid delivery. Classics like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Christmas Song" are included here but they are also undistinguished. Overall, Braxton sounds as if she could do most of the songs on "Snowflakes" in her sleep.