The Letter was the weakest and least successful of
Avant's first six albums. None of his previous releases missed the Top Ten of
Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, but it fell short at number 19. In 2012,
Avant bounced back by reuniting with
Keke Wyatt, with whom he had scored a Top Five hit -- a cover of
Rene & Angela's quiet storm masterpiece "My First Love" -- 12 years prior. The classy duet "You & I" peaked at 46, but it deserved a much higher position and makes for an attractive centerpiece on
Face the Music. It's another set of sophisticated, adult-oriented R&B that occasionally veers into boilerplate belligerence ("If you go home with me, I'm-a hit it," for instance) without quite reaching "Break Ya Back" territory.
Avant either wrote or co-wrote all of the songs and co-produced the majority of them with either
Dre Hen or
Kajun. Altogether, it's a pleasing, natural continuation, full of slow grooves that tend to be convincingly romantic. There are a couple changes of pace. On "Nobody's Business,"
Avant morphs into a soul shouter over a brassy neo-
Motown stomp. "NO," near the album's end, is more of a pop power ballad than anything drawn from the legacies of
Avant's longtime inspirations. ~ Andy Kellman
![4 [Deluxe Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0887254236627_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "4 [Deluxe Edition]")
![Trolls [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0889853416226_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Trolls [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]")
