Kanye guests on “Extravaganza,” and while Foxx’s vocal line is flaccid, meandering where it wants to vamp, West is terrific. “With You” evokes hip-hop collective Dipset’s whistle hooks, with a blasé yet organically interwoven Snoop cameo and a cumbersomely placed but authoritative appearance from The Game. The title track and lead single-featuring a guaranteed hitmaking cameo by Ludacris-starts off promisingly with bombastic horns and strings, but soon fades into a tepid lite-funk that manages to diffuse even Luda’s dynamic flow. Instead, Unpredictable bogs down in twitchy reconciliations of Southern bounce, moist G-funk and smooth jazz that don’t even begin to prop up Foxx’s forgettable melodies, phoned-in rapper cameos dropped awkwardly into songs (industry standard, but still), lubricated come-ons, disjointed narratives, multi-tracked and variously filtered Foxx-on-Foxx harmonizing and fluttery emoting.

Even though Foxx supplied the white-hot hook for “Gold Digger,” he apparently couldn’t persuade Kanye to return the favor by donating some beats. Unpredictable stifles Foxx’s personality in a digest of clichés verging on parody, and inexplicably harking back to Ginuwine and Blackstreet, complete with tooth-gritted rococo cadences, freaky interludes and smarmily unsexy sex jams. How did the chainsaw-soul Foxx exhibited on Kanye West’s hit, “Gold Digger,” metastasize into these leering single entendres? Like an ill-prepared tackle box, the record is loaded with flossy lines but direly lacks hooks, and it becomes clear: it’s better to be the imitation Ray Charles than the poor man’s R. But instead of tapping into the wealth of unique life experiences at his disposal, he’s crafted a generically freaky R&B simulacrum. After kicking off his musical career by emulating Ray Charles, it’s understandable that Foxx would want to prove himself as himself. What he lacks is an album with enough substance to let any of it shine through. Jamie Foxx has a lot going for him: decent voice, good looks, huge diamond earrings, star power, Oscar-winning acting skills and charisma. Let’s Talk About Sucks: Foxx escapes Ray Charles’ shadow only to wallow in oversexed R&B numbers

Jamie foxx album unpredictable