#8 Write Me Back by R. Kelly
One of the infamously-raunchy singer-songwriter’s more mature efforts, this project didn’t rely on retro soul trends as much as it refined them and reimagined them in a modern setting. But it is a sequel of sorts to 2010s Love Letter; building on that album’s classicism in a way that emphasizes Kelly’s gift for melody as a writer without bogging the songs down with his typical ridiculous come-ons. Another inspired effort that points to a late-career creative renaissance that sometimes gets overshadowed by the pomposity of oddities like his un-ending “Trapped In the Closet.”
