Flo'Ology

Following their successful live album, Floetry returned to the studio after some much needed rest from constant touring and album-making. Relaxed and very much reenergized, Floetry then issued Flo'Ology, which rises to the top of the list as one of the best things the group has ever released. The blueprint pretty much stays the same: tasteful, funky neo-soul grooves blended with emotive R&B crooning and spoken word poetry. But there's a much-needed sense of refinement to their style and vocal delivery this time around, a hint of maturity that was lost on their debut and subsequent releases. The ferocity that made Floetic the album of the neo-soul jet set has been replaced by a calmer, more introspective duo confident of their abilities and — most importantly — understanding when to restrain themselves from becoming just another cookie-cutter R&B group (check out "Lay Down" for the best example of this discipline). The one thing detracting from Flo'Ology is the length of the songs, with many of them bordering on or exceeding the five-minute mark; combined with the repetition of themes, this length tends to drag down and unnecessarily carry songs on longer than they should, but that's a trivial complaint considering all of the fine-tuning, general improvement, and overall quality boost that Flo'Ology delivers from start to finish.