R.E.D.

Overall R.E.D. is concise and beautifully simple, making it one of this year's smoothest R&B albums.

His honeyed tenor glides through slow jams and bangers alike … But R.E.D. won't reassure those who accuse him of drifting away from R&B to make a quick pop buck.

The highlights are all casual, subtle, finely detailed midtempo numbers and slow jams. What's truly disappointing is the absence of energetic songs descended from soul and funk.

Bullshit notwithstanding, his silky phrasing gilds an impressively broad mix … Still, as peers like Frank Ocean and Miguel boldly reimagine commercial R&B, this often feels less like vision than parsing market research.