ALOUD!

Lucky Daye has spent most of his career as the careful one. ALOUD! is the sound of him loosening his grip.

The title tells you where he's at. Daye has said it plays on two words, “allowed” and “aloud,” and on years of believing he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted. “Now I'm screaming,” he says. It's his first album for Warner Records, and according to the label, it grew out of an unplanned stretch of time in Brazil.

What he wanted from it is simple. In his own notes on the album, Daye says it's “meant to feel fun,” that there's “so much heaviness in the world right now,” and that he wanted to “tap into a lighter side” of himself. Coming off Algorithm, which won him his second Grammy for “That's You,” that's a real change in attitude, and you can see it in the album's shape: 15 tracks in about 39 minutes, with nothing longer than 3:47. It gets in, has its fun and gets out.

“Nowhere Fast” set the tone back in June. His longtime collaborator D'Mile produced it, and its first words are “Make 'em wait.” The hook is about the pressure to rush, “They turn the heat up, they want to make you speed up now,” and the answer is to move at your own pace. It's a smart way to open an album about not asking for permission.

“Talk To Me” is where the album's heart is. It opens on an automated voicemail greeting, then a message left on it: “I thought we said forever.” From there, it's a man who won't stop calling, and the chorus says it plainly: “Thought we'd be more than an option.” Warner calls it “a lush plea for romantic reconciliation,” and that's about right. If you came to Lucky Daye for the ballads, this is the one.

“Mouf Say” is the best song here. Pusha T goes first, which is a bold choice on an R&B album, with a sharp verse about a woman whose story doesn't add up: “Working from home, she's never alone, you know the type.” Then Daye turns that suspicion into a flirt. The hook is just “Doubt what your mouth say,” and his verse ends on the line that sums up the whole song: “Come show me what we doin', all these words mean nothing.” Push brings the side-eye, and Lucky brings the invitation. It's already No. 5 on our Friday Rankings, and the video arrived on release day.

The rest of the guests show the same willingness to try things. Leon Thomas, a longtime collaborator, returns on the August single “Fly U Out,” and Akeem Ali shows up on “Woman First.” The biggest swing is “Knockin,” which puts Muni Long next to the Atlanta rock band The Paradox. Warner calls it a “raw rock-soul collision,” and it's the clearest sign that Daye meant what he said about doing what he wants.

ALOUD! isn't trying to be Lucky Daye's biggest statement, and it's not supposed to be. It's quick, light and loose by design, and that's exactly what makes it so much fun. Play it front to back and let him enjoy himself. He sounds like he's earned it.