Billboard's 10 Best R&B Albums of 2014

Mary J. Blige doesn’t fear new challenges. Over two decades, the GRAMMY®-winning R&B icon has shown herself to be a skilled collaborator who’s worked with artists and producers as disparate as Sean “Puffy” Combs, Chaka Khan, and Sting. For *The London Sessions*, Blige traveled to the U.K.\'s capital city in search of inspiration. What she found was a team of exciting young artists with roots in London’s vibrant dance music community. Written with and produced by the likes of Sam Smith, Disclosure, Jimmy Napes, Naughty Boy, and Emeli Sandé, the resulting album is one of Blige’s bravest and most refreshing releases to date.

Contemporary R&B is enjoying an embarrassment of riches, with innovative albums by FKA Twigs, Banks, and Kelela stretching the genre\'s boundaries. Tinashe\'s debut raises the bar yet again. Building on the momentum of the roiling summer jam \"2 On,\" *Aquarius* features a who\'s-who of names, from R&B iconoclasts like Blood Orange\'s Dev Hynes to bankable pop pros like Stargate. \"How Many Times\" is a throwback slow jam enlivened by Future\'s staccato vocals, while \"Pretend\" out-Drakes Drake with its liquid production and earworm hook. Tinashe remains the star of the show, cooing, rapping, and ruminating (via several interludes). It\'s one of the year\'s most adventurous pop records.

Teyana Taylor\'s been flirting with her big break for years, releasing the single \"Google Me\" in 2008 and singing on a number of mentor Kanye West\'s tracks. She\'s officially arrived with her studio debut, *VII*. A sultry throwback to \'90s R&B with modern flourishes, the album highlights Taylor\'s powerhouse pipes, with skeletal tunes like \"Sorry\" and \"Request\" placing her vocals front and center. \"Just Different\" is a slinking slow jam. \"Maybe\" blends woozy atmospherics into the mix, and \"Put Your Love On\" toys with dancehall. Compared to the avant-garde R&B of 2014 breakouts like Tinashe and FKA Twigs, *VII* is more traditional, but it\'s no less compelling.

There\'s a deceptive depth to the title of Chris Brown\'s sixth studio album, *X*. Explaining the name in a 2013 interview, he cited the decade he\'d spent in the music business, an intricate numerology related to his upcoming 24th birthday, and the way \"ex\" connotes progress. X is also a concise way to say he\'s done a lot and he\'ll do more. The 2014 album and its expanded edition attest to that, blending all his hit-making tools with pristine curatorial savvy and the most emotionally transparent songwriting of his career. Beginning with the titular opener, C. Breezy jumps into reflection and dance-floor thrills, lacing a pulsing Diplo-produced EDM beat with an emphatic declaration: \"I ain\'t going back no more.\" Paired with the frenetic instrumental, it\'s the sound of catharsis. He\'s learned from his years of turmoil, he wants us to know. If the title track is an escape powered by reflection, the Akon-assisted \"Came To Do\" is a lust-powered release, and \"New Flame,\" with assists from Rick Ross and Usher, captures the bliss of new affection. Meanwhile, \"Loyal\" is a frank lesson on proper etiquette for unfaithful ladies. With candy-coated West Coast synths, an anthemic hook, and quippy playboy bars from Tyga and Lil Wayne, it\'s a pantheon Breezy anthem. While he dives into disco, EDM, and hip-hop, he\'s just as comfortable in ambient R&B—and his feelings. On \"Autumn Leaves,\" he wades through dazed strings as he remembers a past love, with Kendrick Lamar serving up an alien flow that adds colorful discordance to the affair. For the expanded edition, Breezy dips further into his emotions for a posthumous collaboration with Aaliyah (\"Don\'t Think They Know\"), actualizing what was a theoretical dream team with a spacy sound bed and a hook that emits romantic paranoia. On a more upbeat note, he teams with Nicki Minaj for a buoyant bedroom soundtrack, this one grafted onto a jittery beat designed for the dance floor. Linking with an R&B queen from the past and a rap queen of the present feels like symbolic connective tissue for *X*, but it\'s not some overwrought metaphor; it\'s just the access afforded by dominance. Like the album, the two collabs are a reminder of how he got here—and why he\'ll never leave.

FKA twigs’ first full-length album brims with spartan, icy songs that whisk between distorted R&B and ethereal pop. While twigs’ pristine vocals and sensual lyrics are the cornerstone, *LP1* showcases the kind of confident production and instrumentation that play easily alongside celebrated pop minimalists like James Blake. Album highlight “Pendulum\" sees FKA twigs dabbling in manipulated vocals, as wavering guitars and electric drums stutter-step intoxicatingly, while “Video Girl” finds her melodic falsetto fluttering over churning, wobbling synths and creaking percussion.

K. Michelle is primarily known as the star of the reality shows *Love & Hip-Hop* and *K. Michelle: My Life*, but that should change with the dazzling *Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart*, on which Michelle\'s talents as a vocalist far outshine her yen for stirring up drama. On the piano ballad \"How Do You Know?,\" her voice is a colossus coursing with emotion, while \"Going Under\" finds her having her way with vibrant pop R&B and \"God I Get It\" is a straight-up country song, right down to its pedal steel guitar. From the slinking electro of \"Love \'Em All\" to the classic quiet storm of \"Maybe I Should Call,\" *Heart* is immaculately executed.

August Alsina proves why he\'s one of the most exciting stars in contemporary R&B on this major-label debut. The New Orleans musician\'s talents are manifold, from his scuffed-up tenor to his slinking flow. Yet it\'s Alsina\'s ability to relate tales of his hardscrabble upbringing—\"I had to face it that my daddy was addicted,\" he sings on the opener, \"Testify\"—that distinguishes him from his peers. Though he\'s not averse to waxing romantic (\"Kissin on my Tattoos\"), it\'s tracks like \"Right There\" and \"Make It Home\" that tie Alsina to a legacy of down-on-their-luck crooners, even if his beats are fluttering contemporary trap-n-B. On \"Mama,\" Alsina sings proudly, \"I coulda been locked up/I coulda been gunned down/But I found my own way/I ain\'t gonna stop now.\"