R. Kelly is R&B's reigning king of outrageousness: Whether inspiring listeners to reach for the sky ("I Believe I Can Fly") or the Astroglide ("In the Kitchen"), he can always be counted on to deliver horny double-entendres and vocal acrobatics. But on his 11th studio album, Kelly experiments with a novel concept: restraint. Kelly is the consummate gentleman on the PG-rated Love Letter: The sunny title track finds him giving praise to "sweet dreams, butterflies, holding hands," and on "When a Woman Loves," a retro-soul ode to fidelity, Kelly's gritty intensity evokes Wilson Pickett. Much of Love Letter is sleekly tuneful, and it's a testament to Kelly's musical ingenuity that the songs don't fizzle even with the fly zipped up on his wildest eccentricities.

Keep up with rock's hottest photos in Random Notes.

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."