The first two singles from Ryan Leslie's self-titled album ("Diamond Girl" and "Addiction") were two of my favorite hits of 2008 (and he produced a third, Slim's "Good Lovin'"), so I was pretty hyped about the album once it finally dropped last month. And while it further proves what a promising and versatile producer he is, it also ultimately proves that as an R&B singer, Leslie is...a promising and versatile producer. The fact that the cover photo does the guy's gawky, weak-chinned appearance no favors is appropriate for an album that never quite plays to his strengths vocally, even though he wrote and arranged all the material himself. Oddly enough, though, the twinkly ballad "Valentine," which he has no right pulling off, is somehow by far my favorite track on the album. And while the skronky sonics of "Just Right" and the hilarious AutoTuned nothings of "Gibberish" help make the album less bland than it would otherwise be, it's still a slight and unmemorable album, especially at a time when the similarly vocally impaired auteur The-Dream is coming into his own as an artist.

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