The Foreign Exchange came together exactly as its title implies. North Carolina MC Phonte and Holland-based producer Nicolay met via the Roots’ Okayplayer.com Web community, releasing the international collab, "Connected," to good reviews.

Since then, Nicolay has honed his hip-hop jones, releasing a compilation ("The Dutch Master Tapes") as well as a more diverse collaboration with rapper Kay ("Time Line").

"Leave It All Behind" finds Nicolay indulging his experimental side, adding a lot of the lush synthesizers and touches of electronica and jazz that worked to excellent effect on "Time Line."

Where those touches gave the Kay collab a worldly feel that was grounded firmly in hip-hop, this time around Phonte puts rapping on the backburner to practice his R&B skills, and while it works very well at times, often it comes off as a bit too sugary-sweet.

True to their meeting place, Foreign Exchange’s soundscape is heavily influenced by the Philly hip-hop sound that the Roots have cultivated, which in itself is a modern extension of “the Philly Soul Sound”: clear, crisp drums, lush strings and spacey, wide-open arrangement.

And it’s not that Phonte isn’t a good singer. Quite the opposite. It’s just that the tracks where he raps make you wish he did it a lot more. The insistent synths of “All or Nothing/Coming Home to You,” as well as the slightly loping beat and mellow vibes of “If This is Love” just beg for someone to drop a hot 16 bars.

Purely as an R&B record, "Leave It All Behind" works well, a kind of modern one-man Boyz II Men in its harmonies and innocent exploration of love and heartbreak, albeit with a little more groove.

And no super-cool bass singer with a mega-deep voice. But you can’t have it all.

Listen to samples from "Leave It All Behind" at Amazon.com.