You're Makin' Me High

Written and produced by Babyface with Bryce Wilson of Groove Theory, this is Braxton at her most explicitly sensual, and the production makes the case sonically: a slinky, mid-tempo hip-hop-soul groove with a nagging two-note synth hook, crisp programmed snares, and a bassline that walks rather than pushes. Where her ballads sat in devastated stillness, this one moves with hips-first confidence. Her contralto works differently here — she keeps it low and sly through the verses, half-whispering, letting a smile into the phrasing, then rises into an airy, layered chorus that floats above the beat like the high she's describing. The lyric is frankly about desire and, more pointedly, about her own capacity for satisfaction with or without him, which in 1996 was still a mildly transgressive thing for a mainstream female R&B star to sing. It won a Grammy, anchored *Secrets*, and helped establish the template for the sexy-but-composed R&B single that would define the back half of the decade. It belongs to late evenings, getting dressed with intent, the anticipatory hour before going out — not the seduction itself but the confidence preceding it.