Avant (2008)

''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