PartyNextDoor 3

Photographer: Adrián Martinez.
Between his second and third PartyNextDoor releases, Jahron Brathwaite scored his first number one pop hit with Rihanna and Drake's "Work," a lightly dancehall-tinged song credited to several other writers, including fellow Jamaican-Canadian artists Boi-1da and Sevn Thomas. On this album, Brathwaite brags "You heard a lot about Jamaicans and you wanna know what it feel like," occasionally slips into patois, and reconnects with Boi-1da for "Only U," a harder-hitting dancehall cut. "Only U" is clearly a bid for sustained crossover success, as it's also one of the few clean tracks on the album, all about longing and devotion instead of bold objectification and poisonous relationships. That and a couple other exceptions aside, the hour-plus set offers more variations on the narcotic, boast-filled slow jams for which Brathwaite and his fellow OVO Sound artists are known. Apart from a little crafty sonic detailing, nothing distinguishes them from what came before. Drake appears on the bleary "Come and See Me," unsurprisingly the album's most popular cut. ~ Andy Kellman