''I'm gonna need your undivided attention,'' Avant informs his lady in ''When It Hurts,'' the lead single from the singer's fifth studio album. That's every bit as true of this R&B crooner's music as it is of his romancing: Avant is packed full of sturdy, no-frills soul tunes that at first seem to be background-ready — until you start to listen close and hear the way his singing complicates club-dude machismo with sensitive-guy melancholy. ''Break Ya Back'' definitely overdoes it with the bedroom bravado (''When we get up in the sack/I'm gonna break your back/In a good way''). But mostly Avant proves that it’s possible to be both a lover and a fighter. B
Download This: Listen to songs from the new album on the singer’s MySpace
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