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. ~ Andy Kellman