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Tamar Braxton is not playing around.
The three-time Grammy nominee’s third studio album, “Calling All Lovers,” is seriously good – a reminder that while her outsized personality might bring the laughs to television (“The Real,” ”Braxton Family Values,” ”Vince & Tamar”), the multi-talented Braxton is a true music artist, at heart.
As far as vocal talent, she has little to prove. We knew Braxton could sing, well before she belted a note on the single “If I Don’t Have You,” or sent her smooth voice soaring on the emotional, piano-driven ballad “King.”
What’s most impressive about “Calling All Lovers” is that the collection of songs does a really good job of, not only capturing all stages of love, but of capturing Braxton’s persona, too. Maybe that should be of no surprise, since Braxton is co-writer of every track save one. But it’s a verifiable feat, especially considering the abundance of nice-sounding, but totally generic, could-have-been-sung-by-anyone R&B offerings floating around the genre.
“Baby I know the real you,” Braxton coos on the upbeat, Polow da Don-produced “Catfish,” a song aptly titled for the MTV show that regularly exposes fakes in the world of online romance. It’s the kind of side-eyeing that Braxton is known for, and the humor doesn’t stop there, showing up in more subtle ways, too, such as in the ad-libs on the doo-wop-inspired “Simple Things.”
