Foreign Exchange is an interesting group. Phonte and Nicolay never met before going on tour to promote their album. They made their music with virtually every medium of communication outside of meeting face to face and they created a great album with their debut Connected. Phonte was on both singing and rapping duty on that one, as were his Justus League cohorts, but when the second installment came along, Leave It All Behind, we were all a little shocked to see that Phonte only spit on two songs for two small verses; otherwise he was singing. A lot of people, fans of Little Brother, have hated on Phonte since he liked to get his R&B self out sometimes (Percy Miracles) but he's a very capable singer. He's no Luther Vandross but who is? He's something like 50 Cent in this respect, able to stay in key and possessing a voice worthy of a singer. Is it strong enough to carry an entire album? No, not really. I can be, but the end result would have been strange. Perhaps that's why Foreign Exchange enlisted the assistance of two more: Carlitta Durand and Zo!, as well as a few guests. The end result is the most refreshing R&B/neo-soul album I've heard in a good while.

The opening track, Daykeeper, features singer Muhsinah and serves as the most interpretive track on the album, a sweet and haunting kind of distant love track, with windy moments and rising suns. It could be my favorite track on the album, but I try not to play favorites all like that. Next we have Take Off The Blues, featuring longtime Little Brother collaborator Darien Brockington in a more uptempo invitation for Phonte's lady to chill out and relax with him a little bit. No, it's not a sex song either. This track is just great for the message and the trumpet solo in the latter half of it. From here we go into the two parter again featuring soulful stylings from Mr. Darien Brockington, All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You. When I first played through the album way back when I fell in love with this song because of the humorous intro skit. The song kind of examines the specifics of relationships and how some things are a little too petty to be knitpicking about. The second part of the track is more Darien Brockington heavy and it's the sequel of sorts, hence the title. In part one the narrator (Phonte) is getting kicked out, and in part two the narrator (this time Darien) is coming home to the same lady that threw him out for undressing and throwing his clothes on the floor. That's okay though; he wanted to play Xbox on the big TV anyway, ha! This is also a special song because it features one of the two verses that Phonte raps on; rapping takes a MAJOR back seat to singing on the second Foreign Exchange LP, and it shows. The verse is okay, nothing too advanced for someone of Phonte's caliber but it gets the job done.

The next track was the one that took a while to grow on me. I Wanna Know is even more upbeat than the second track and it features Phonte trying to get his girl to open up; MENTALLY! Again, no sex talk, just mental goodness; he wanted to know about her. Now we come to House of Cards, a short track about changing the dirty ways the man is going through and knowing that continuing such a thing would cause things to crash down, just like a house of cards as Musinah and Phonte so calmly and masterfully sang. This is also pretty neo-soul too; the album is kind of divided in this gap between R&B and neo-soul. I prefer the neo-soul but it all works out. The next track is Sweeter Than You and I can say that I'm not feeling this track so much as the others. It's a little too sickly sweet for my tastes, and simple. Too simple for someone like Phonte. The hypocrasy shows in my words when I show my praise to Validation, a slightly more somber short but sweet track where Phonte is going through something with his girl. Then we shift gears a little bit and Phonte takes the back seat to the lovely YahZarah with the next track, If She Breaks Your Heart. It's her track and Phonte just does backing/hook vocals. The song is pretty self explanitory, as is the next track featuring the very same songstress, If This Is Love. I like the little duo of tracks here because Phonte isn't hogging the spotlight like I imagined that he would.

The home stretch starts with one of my other favorites, Something to Behold. Aside from featuring Darien Brockington AND Munisah, aside from featuring a longer, more user friendly verse from one half of Little Brother, it features the greatest chorus I've ever heard on a song. EVER! Check it out:

I want to call you everyday, when I ain't got shit to say

This must be love (be love... yeah)

Bring you some wings on your lunch break

Like, "Baby, how's your day?"

Twelve piece, fried hard... it's all for you

DAMN! Percy Miracles came back from the dead for this track here. It's a great song, just happy and even a little instructive. Fellas, if you want to make your lady happy then try bringing her some wings on her lunch break every now and then. Ask her how her day is when she's crunching that twelve piece, fried hard dead fowl. Enough praise, back to the review and onto the final song of the album, the title track itself.

I was pleasantly surprised by this song and I still play it now when I'm in a bad mood. Phonte handles the vocals entirely I believe, and he's basically saying that regardless of the situation you have to leave it all behind sometimes, and if it gets too rough then leave it all behind. Leave it all behind, the title makes perfect sense when you hear this track.

I'm a fan of Foreign Exchange, and the big change of style between this album and the previous Connected is drastic but welcome. I was a little upset to hear such a decrease in the verses from arguably Carolina's number one emcee and while I do love to hear him sing I slightly prefer him when he's either overly comical or just having fun. He could be a serious contender in the world of R&B and if he does then more power to him. But I don't want to see him end his rapping career to do so. He can do both and he can do them both pretty damn well.

He's a brilliant emcee. Watch him kill this verse from The Minstrel Show's "Watch Me".

He's a good singer. Watch him make Soulja Boy's crappy song sound good.

I thought he was done singing on this scale after that Percy Miracles EP, something I'm proud to say I have in my collection, but I see he still has the R&B bug in him. On this album he gets overshadowed by too many guest appearances however, stronger voices but good voices nonetheless. Nicolay's production is fantastic and compliments the vocal work more than perfectly, but again, next to Phonte's voice its a little overpowering at times. The biggest compliment I can give this album is the biggest complaint: the voice of Phonte. Sounds good and organic but just doesn't have the strength of someone like Darien Brockington. With this being said a lot of people claim that this album would have been better if a more powerful voice was on it, like Anthony Hamilton. I disagree and say that Rahsaan Patterson or Geno Young would have the perfect voice for this. But it wouldn't have sounded so organic. Phonte and Nicolay work so well together that any changes would be pushes too far in either direction, good or bad, and eventually you go from bad to terrible and good goes to the other end of the spectrum when you do too much. Do you see what I'm saying? If not, that's okay; it's hard to explain. Case in point, this is a good album. Is it better than its predecessor? Yes and no. Yes for those that love some smooth easy going laying on the porch R&B and neo-soul, and no for those that love some smooth easy going laying on the porch rap. It's all about preference, a scapegoat I go to every time I'm on the fence. I have my gripes but I can't complain for real. Phonte (and Little Brother for that matter) has yet to let me down for real and this is no exception.

The DiZ Review Score: 4 out of 5

(Side note: I took a long time to write this one out so it'll appear between some previous posts as opposed to wear it would chronologically speaking. Hope you don't mind. Peace.)