Foreign Exchange

Phonte and Nicolay's Foreign Exchange is perfect make-out music for cool kids. Phonte's day job is as emcee for indie group Little Brother, but he has a nice voice, and, though lacking range, he manages to project a svelte warmness. For the most part, he's content to simply purr here. As an approach, it's limited, but it's also preferable to endless melisma calisthenics. Nicolay's production, meanwhile, is appropriately lilting. The lush key work on songs such as "If She Breaks Your Heart" point toward the lite-R&B of the mid-'80s, and the pattering "Sweeter than You" is light, dreamy and romantic.