Babyface

It's easy enough to be seduced by Toni Braxton's singing. Her voice is a delight, with a smooth, supple upper register and a lustrous lower end so dark and sweet that it's the aural equivalent of caramel. Even better, she uses that voice to full advantage, bringing an awesome intensity to power ballads while making the quiet songs seem as intimate as a whispered conversation.But however enticing her performance may be, it's hard to fall for an album if you're not smitten by the songs. So even though Braxton's singing is as alluring as ever, "Secrets" (LaFace 73008 26020, arriving in stores today)

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" may be appropriate advice for a lot of situations, but as Bobby Brown's "Bobby" (MCA 10417, in record stores tomorrow) demonstrates, album-making isn't necessarily one of them.Sometimes, change is just what an artist needs.That certainly seemed the case when Bobby Brown unleashed "Don't Be Cruel" a little over four years ago. Although the former New Edition member had tried to blend rap with R&B on his first solo album, "King of Stage," he didn't really find success until he dumped his old producers and hooked up with new jack genius Teddy Riley and the team of L.A. & Babyface.

Soul FoodMusic from the 'Soul Food' Motion Picture Soundtrack Album (LaFace)Considering the kind of success Babyface had with the "Waiting to Exhale" soundtrack, it would be hard to approach his latest attempt at movie music with anything but the highest of expectations. Don't be surprised, then, if "Music from the 'Soul Food' Motion Picture Soundtrack Album" ends up seeming somewhat less astonishing than hoped. Part of that has to do with the nature of the project. Unlike "Waiting to Exhale," where the new songs were all by Babyface and personally tailored to fit the action of the film, "Soul Food" has no overriding sense of conceptual or compositional unity.

One of the most debated topics throughout the WWE Universe is John Cena's character and the notion that many want him to turn heel. I think the term “heel” -- when talking about change that many want from John Cena -- is misleading. Before we explore the idea, let's first clearly define the term "heel. " At the very core, as many of you surely already know, a “heel” is someone the fans hate, a "bad guy. " JJ Dillon once told me in an interview a definition that I like to use -- someone that is not as good and/or talented as the “babyface” in the ring, so he needs to cheat to get the upper hand in a match.

LOOK UP the list of celebrity birthdays in today's paper, and you probably won't find Tim Watts listed there. But if you're a rhythm-and-blues fan in the Baltimore area, today is worth celebrating. Watts, WWIN-FM 95.9's drive-time disc jockey from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., turns 50 today. It's tempting, and downright cliche-ish, to say that Watts, with nearly 25 years as an on-air radio personality in this town, is a Baltimore institution. But that's not quite the word. A Baltimore monument is more like it. Who else would have stayed in this burg after what Watts has been through?

Christmas carols, in a sense, are the original mood music.Think about it. However much the lyrics might talk about babes born in mangers and angels heard on high, the music in those classic carols conjures up the whole majesty of Christmas. No sooner do we hear the refrain from "We Three Kings" or "O Come, All Ye Faithful" than we're flooded with thoughts of snowy nights, twinkling trees and happy times.Even contemporary Christmas songs work that magic. Whether as sentimental as "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ... ")

CRAZYSEXYCOOLTLC (LaFace 73008 26009)Few R&B albums celebrated the exuberance of adolescence with as much style as TLC's debut, "Ooooooh . . . On the TLC Tip." It wasn't the way the producers -- mainly Dallas Austin, Daryl Simmons, L.A. Reid and Babyface -- distilled hip-hop and club beats into a catchy, utterly accessible package; there was also an honesty and intelligence to the songs that kept them from seeming like typical teen-pop product. But TLC has done some growing since then, and the trio's second album, "CrazySexyCool," has a decidedly adult bent to it. Although that's most obvious in the bedroom talk that fills out such songs as "Kick Your Game" and "Red Light Special," that's not the only area in which TLC's newfound maturity is evident.

Think "Toni Braxton," and a couple of things inevitably come to mind - saucy hits like "You're Making Me High" (about satisfying her desire for a man) and her unforgettable 2001 Grammy night dress, little more than a strategically placed long, white scarf. She laughs with a tinge of embarrassment when these are now mentioned, however. It's not that the daughter of a Maryland preacher doesn't want to keep pushing the sexual envelope and flaunting her God-given assets. It's just, well, she has other considerations now. In the time since her last album - 2000's The Heat - she's gotten married, had a son and now is pregnant again with another boy. "Songs like `You're Making Me High,' I would have to explain that to my boys when they get older," the Severn native says by phone from her home in Los Angeles.

One of the most prolific and successful pop-R&B songwriter-producers of the 1990s, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds was behind such monster hits as Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" and Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High." During that time, he also established a multiplatinum career as a performer, racking up solo hits such as "Whip Appeal" and "For the Cool in You." On Playlist, his latest CD and the first release on the newly reactivated Mercury label, Edmonds covers his favorite pop classics, including Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle," James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and others.

Goodbye, goodbye! Season finales abound tonight, along with one series ender. Rock fans also take note: Some never-before-telecast music and conversation from Bruce Springsteen arrive on cable.* "Mad About You" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- This series' charm stems from the fact that Paul and Jamie (Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt) seem like real spouses. Tonight's extended season finale plays the old "what if?" game most spouses know well. When they learn that the place where they met is gone, we view a fantasy life in which they have not gotten together.