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Prodigal Toledo, Ohio son, Lyfe Jennings, returns with his sophomore set, The Phoenix - a searing, soulfully brilliant offering that fills the void left by the majority of mainstream R&B albums.

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Jennings expertly weaves well structured tracks and laid back, thoughtful narration (no throwaway, corny skits here) into a 28-track opus that is quite frankly one of the best R&B/soul albums of the year. The narrative interludes actually encourage the tracks to be played in order, since simply downloading individual songs, or random shuffling will deprive the listener of the full meaning laced throughout the album.

More daring than his first classic, 2004's unstoppable Lyfe 268-192, The Phoenix delivers flavors ranging from hip-hop laced club banger ("Slow Down" featuring Young Buck), to beautifully sung, break-up track (the heart-rending, piano driven "Goodbye"), to sage advice to teen girls on staying out of compromising situations (the mind-blowing "S.E.X.").

In between all this, the singer/songwriter manages to mix in non-blingy big ups to hip-hop's fallen greats. "Biggie N****" pays tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. while "Keep Ya Head Up" covers the classic Tupac track giving respect to the women in our lives. The latter, sung dynamically and featuring children rapping on the bridge, is so artfully rendered it takes an already perfect track to a higher level and makes it a different song altogether.

Whether Jennings is accompanied by guest stars such as Buck, Project Pat or Three 6 Mafia, or it's just him alone with the piano, guitar and his bared, soulful realness, the majority of the tracks, if not all of them, simply bang. Cop.

Download:  The entire album or better yet buy the CD

  To purchase CDs, click on the cover art or title link. To legally download, click on the iTunes logo. If you do not have iTunes, you can download it here by clicking the "download iTunes" logo above.