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 René & 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.