Now that's a positive surprise (the other way round like Kenny Lattimore's Weekend is a more bad surprise). Babyface always lacked for me something, often I found his songs too polished and perfect. His previous productions and songwritings for others were perfect for the watered down pop/soul of the likes of Whitney Houston or Toni Braxton. And I always felt this fact biased his own stuff. But this time he has outdone himself and written and produced a fine album of soulful songs (especially on the downtempo side) like the still-not-over-you What If, Lover And Friend with it's funky horns and Babyface sounding like a mixture of Curtis and Prince, the catchy How Can You Be Down or the simple but sad With Him with it's acoutic guitar background ( "Cause if you really, really didn't want to hurt nobody/ You wouldn't have slept with my best friend, baby/ And to bring insult to my injury/ You weren't a bit discreet/ And while the world stood witness to my embarrassment/ You put a knife inside of me").
Even the uptempo tracks fit in nicely like the first single There She Goes or Stressed Out or Baby's Mama that reminds me of better Prince days.
All in all an recommendable album even if every Joe Doe will own it considering Babyface success so far...