CD reviews: Mike Posner and Blake Shelton

Mike Posner, "31 Minutes to Takeoff" (J)

At the beginning of "Deja Vu," which arrives midway through Posner's debut album, the 1990s R&B greats Boyz II Men appear, performing some of their signature post-doo-wop. Twenty-four seconds later they're gone, and one second after that they're deeply missed. At that point Posner's vaporous electro-soul returns to its natural state, unfettered by depth or texture. A vocal and emotional naif, Posner has an easy way with harmless melodies, which are all over this flat album, notable only for its odd choices: frat-boy come-ons ("Get Your Red Bull on/'Cause I'm ready") and what's probably the first-ever sample of a Ray LaMontagne tune ("Do U Wanna?").

Posner released a pair of mix tapes while still a student at Duke University, from which he recently graduated. The sense of humor, however slight, that he showed on songs like "Drug Dealer Girl" is nowhere to he heard here. Instead, he toggles between petulant cad ("Gone in September") and wounded child ("Save Your Goodbye"), convincing at neither. He has a grating voice, heavily nasal, with a seeming inability to wrap his lips around all of the necessary syllables, meaning that even when he's at his angriest, he sounds as if he's holding back.

Sometimes, though, Posner feels the need to make things uncomfortably clear. On "Cheated," he actually names the woman he's lashing out against: Boyz II Men would never be so gauche.

JON CARAMANICA, NEW YORK TIMES

Blake Shelton, "All About Tonight" (Warner Bros.)

Shelton is among the most versatile of contemporary country singers, an amiable rapscallion one minute and a thoughtful brooder the next. His new EP is a variety-pack of country styles, each song a different pose for Shelton to try out, with varying success. (It's his second EP this year, after "Hillbilly Bone" in March.)

That's because as a singer, he wrings feeling from emphasis and flexibility, not strength. On "Got a Little Country," about seducing a city girl, he pronounces Manolo Blahniks "Milano Blahniks" though you sense he knows perfectly well what he's doing: The gaffe is funnier.

Really, mischief is Shelton's game -- it's telling that the funniest song here is the one with his fiancée, Miranda Lambert. "Draggin' the River" is about a couple that fakes a car crash in order to steal away for a secret wedding -- a tale that would make Tim McGraw and Faith Hill blush.