After being diagnosed in ’08 with microvascular angina, a heart-related illness, Toni Braxton says she “didn’t think I’d ever be able to do music again.” Fortunately, while undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, a conversation with an elderly patient who had survived four heart attacks motivated the six-time Grammy-winning R&B singer/songwriter to continue making music: “That’s when I found my pulse again,” she says. And today, she’s releasing her sixth album, aptly titled Pulse.

It’s been a long road since 2005′s Libra, filled with personal and professional roadblocks for Toni, but through it all she’s managed to endure. After she signed with Atlantic Records in 2008, Pulse was initially planned for release the following year, but the album found its way online and Toni returned to the studio to replace a few of the leaked tracks, including “I Hate Love”, “Clockwork”, “Melt” as well as a duet with Robin Thicke entitled “Don’t Leave”, and rework some of the others.

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