As we all know, pop music is a thing of mystery, but there are few mysteries greater than Anthony Hamilton's almost invisible profile and far from stellar sales, even after five mostly excellent albums.
It's hard to imagine "Back to Love" changing his status but in the absence of D'Angelo he remains mainstream soul's foremost practitioner, with a magnetic voice that oozes a glistening combination of feral sex and - often in the same song - wounded vulnerability.
Since he writes his own lyrics there's an authenticity to the slinky "Writing on the Wall" and the self-abasing "Pray for Me".
If the 40-year-old from North Carolina wasn't quite so long in the tooth, he would be the new Marvin Gaye.
As it is, he and we will have to make do with the first and last Anthony Hamilton. J Aizelwood