First things first—can we all take a pledge to just say no to Auto-Tune? The program that creates T-Pain’s signature robo-voice? When it pops up in the third song, “Warriors,” it’s distracting—not bad, just distracting, as it is when it turns up again a few songs later. When Cher used it on “Believe,” it made a certain amount of sense—robo-Cher in the techno soundscape—and when T-Pain used it, the new context was intriguing. Now, I’m over it like the phrase, “thrown under the bus.”

While I’m on the subject of distractions, the album includes the beautiful “Brand New,” but the chorus is a pretty straight lift from the Stylistics’ “You Make Me Feel Brand New.” I can’t find the writer credits, so I don’t know if Jennings acknowledges the lift, but using the chorus hook as the hook for his song simply seems lazy, much like P. Diddy using the choruses of hits to give his songs hit-quality choruses. The song’s good, but why wouldn’t it be? It has a great Stylistics’ chorus.

With that off my chest, we can get serious about Lyfe Changes, which situates the soul loverman in hard times. That’s not a new trope either, but the note of reality gives Jennings’ songs grit and heart. His eyes are open to the world around him, one where people come from the projects with nothing and struggle to get by. As Jennings caresses his lyrics, it’s clear he has mixed feelings about that world, though. It’s dragging people down, but he can’t help but romanticize it. The pimps and addicts and people he grew up with are “warriors,” and he offers that as the encomium to use if they die before their time. Rather than fight the good fight, he seems to accept the forces that reduce the possibilities for those around (he’s a star; he’s getting his).

I had time to get to these observations because Lyfe Changes is an attractive album, and Jennings is a distinctive singer who has a way with a slow jam. And the questions the CD raises are interesting ones. What should someone’s relationship to his past surroundings be? Is it reasonable to expect someone to disown or confront a world that likely involved a lot of good times in addition to pain and fear? And if none of those questions engage you, that’s okay, too. Lyfe Changes is simply a good soul album.