When Ryan Leslie's self-titled debut arrived in February, it felt like too little too late, an anticlimactic little record finally dropping well after two of my favorite R&B singles of 2008, "Diamond Girl" and "Addiction," had run their course. So the news that Leslie was coming back with a sophomore effort, Transition, just 9 months later was encouraging, a chance for him show a quick improvement from a predecessor that had probably sat on the label shelf long enough to get a little stale. And while it also has a single with some pretty dazzling production, "You're Not My Girl," Transition doesn't feel as much in the shadow of its singles. Unfortunately, it also just straight up doesn't have any songs as good as "Diamond Girl" or "Addiction," or my favorite deep cut from Ryan Leslie, "Valentine."

The rap against Leslie is that he's a better producer than he is an artist, and strictly speaking that's true, if not entirely fair -- he has a better voice and ear for vocal melodies than he probably gets credit for. Still, he's his own worst enemy when it comes to lyrics, whether it's the cringe-inducing rap on "Sunday Night," or his nearly incoherent attempts at crooning romantic come-ons like "did you come here to take my lonely?" and "this is real, baby, givin' you undivided." And even though he's clearly a skilled producer, he hasn't expanded his palette much from the drums and synths he's been using for years already now, and there's not a single beat on here that knocks like his singles for Slim and Fabolous. R&B artists love to use words like "evolution" or "growth" when titling or describing their albums without actually demonstrating any artistic progress from previous efforts, and Transition is no exception: when I put these two albums in a playlist on shuffle, I have a hard time remembering which songs are from which CD (singles and favorites aside). "Zodiac" is pretty nice, though, I guess.

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