Chapter 4: Labor Pains starts off fairly well with some good tunes mentioned below, but from the 'Interlude' at track seven, every track afterwards struggles to evoke any enjoyment out me. Production wise and from a vocally building up perspective from Syleena, a lot of it is fairly boring. It finishes with an upbeat track in 'Go' after many slow tempo tracks but that also doesn't succeed greatly. Best Tracks: Labour Pains, Where's the Love, Freedom, Be Me.

Joe has been creating great music for almost 20 years, making him one of the most consistent artists mainstream R&B has had over the last couple of decades and this is another consistent album. However, while there are some quality tracks, particularly at the beginning of the album, I don't think the best are the quality of his previous hits. 'Drink Up' particularly is one of the more dull songs I've heard from Joe. There are still a number of enjoyable moments though making it worth a listen for fans, particularly after not hearing anything new from Joe for over two years. Best Tracks: Losing, Almost There, Dear Joe, Impossible

Since The Pied Piper has dropped off some degree in consistency over his recent albums, Joe has climbed to the top of my current trusted R&B artists list. He has made great R&B tracks since his 1993 debut 'Everything' and continues to do so. While 'Signature' is a level below his recent albums, 'New Man' and 'Ain't Nothin' Like Me', there is still enough to satisfy. I can't say formulaically it's a huge amount different than his previous work but it tends to be a little more towards adult contemporary and in the soul genre than general contemporary R&B. Best Tracks: Sex Girl, Friends Don't Let Friends, Worst Case Scenario, Wanna Be Your Lover, Miss My Baby, Come Get to This, Love's Greatest Episode

Joe's seventh album and another good one. Taking out the snippets, (songs will apparently be on his next album Signature due next year), there are 11 quality tracks that production wise follow on from his previous album. Bryan-Michael Cox returns to produce about half the tracks and as usually most are great. If you're a Joe fan, you shouldn't be disappointed with this one. Best Tracks: E.R., By Any Means, We Need to Roll, New Man, Start Over Again, Sorry.

I'm in AUS where contemporary R&B isn't as popular as elsewhere, so maybe I'm wrong, but this guy seems criminally underrated. Some of his R&B ballads are the best of the '90s and early '00s. Only R. Kelly beats Joe for me as an R&B King, but there were times throughout their careers where Joe was releasing better albums. This is a far cry from his debut, that is incredibly new jack swing influenced, with this mainly just being R&B ballads with a couple of higher tempo tunes like 'Come Around'. While this album does lose a touch of steam during the final third of the album, as the list below demonstrates, there are a heap of high moments. Best Tracks: All the Things (Your Man Won't Do), Love Scene, Don't Wanna Be a Player, Good Girls, How Soon, All That I Am, No One Else Comes Close, No One Else Comes Close (Unplugged)