's first album as an independent artist, following associations with and , arrived with the singer's announcement that it would also be her final full-length. was presumably made with fewer creative restrictions, yet there's no indication that was stockpiling left-of-center ideas, as it's a straightforward set of mature commercial R&B. , , and are among the collaborators who supply the kind of slick, sophisticated grooves and airy backdrops that have typified 's major-label efforts. As with the likes of , it's emotionally fraught more frequently than it is content, cresting with the two-timed belter "My Man" and wrenched finale "Empty Boxes." The best of the few throwbacks neatly twists 's "Love Come Down." ~ Andy Kellman