With talk of his sex trial becoming old hat, R. Kelly is getting back to the music, recently holding a listening party for his 10th studio album, Untitled, at his mansion in Chicago. And, true to form, Kelly's sexually charged, straight-to-the-point lyrics and imagery are right there to greet us.

Reports this week included some of his latest words. "I wanna rub, wanna touch every inch of your frame/... I got a big house in the mountains let's go/ I even got a stripper pole," he sings on Exit. "Yo-de-lay, yo-de-lay, yo-de-lay hoo-hoo...I got you sounding like you're screaming from a mountain peak," he yodels on another track.

Always my personal favorite: "Girl I'm ready to toss your salad/While I'm making love, I'll be feasting," from In the Kitchen. Trust me - I'm not alone on this one.

I'm also not alone in thinking that great tracks like Down Low became hard to listen to after the trial. He was acquitted, yes, but flashes of the alleged sex tape - complete with its gory details - hang overhead. "Nobody has to know," he sings. Know what? That you might be underage?

It's obvious that Kelly will persevere, though, and obtain his next #1 album with relative ease. He's still one of R&B's last great storytellers, a Marvin Gaye-meets-2 Live Crew romanticist whose oozy, woozy words are too hard to resist. Troubles aside, the man trapped in that closet will always be free.

- By Darren Ratner