Nick Jonas
Nine years ago, when Nick Jonas recorded his first solo album, he was a little-known preteen Christian pop singer covering Steve Winwood. (He was also going by Nicholas at the time.) Since then, he has gained and lost both a purity ring and a boy band – and this sexy throwback-R&B album is clearly meant to shed his old image, like Justin Timberlake before him. For Jonas, the new sound works well: He's sweetly confident while singing about all the adult lust that he has been suppressing in his music for years. He's even better with a co-star – check the dark electro cut "Numb," with rising rapper Angel Haze, and the arena-pop anthem "Avalanche," with Demi Lovato.