"Love and War" Tamar Braxton

And now for the most surprising insta-smash of the year: "Love and War," the comeback single from Tamar (sister of Toni) Braxton, whose attempts to launch a singing career in the '90s never took off. "Love" soared to #1 on iTunes upon its release yesterday, surprising many chart watchers who had never even heard of Braxton. Never underestimate the power of a WE tv reality show, I suppose—or Lady Gaga, who tweeted support for the wife of her manager, Vincent Herbert. As for the song itself, it's a fairly standard R&B power ballad: a suave drum-machine slow jam punctuated by can't-hold-back bursts of emotion and vocal showmanship. This "Love" is nothing special—it feels straight out of the decade that initially rejected Braxton, especially the heavy-handed battle metaphors—but it's more than enough in a music scene starved for the genre's displays of raw soul. B