Departure, his third studio album, on May 20. The follow-up to the 2006 album Right Where You Want Me sees the singer/songwriter going in a mature direction. "Departure has a little more of mature sound than what my fans previously heard from me," he says, "but this is the road that I'm on right now and it's the road that I believe they'll join with me!"

Working with star writers and producers in R&B and urban genres, Departure has an edgier sound than his multi-platinum debut album Beautiful Soul in 2004 and Right Where You Want Me. "When it was time to do my third album, I wanted people to see another side of me. I wanted the record to have a little retro hint sonically but with a my own contemporary feel," he says about the influence of the new album. "I listened to the music of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince a lot before we started the album."

The first single from Departure is "Leavin'", produced by Tricky and The-Dream whose credits include Rihanna's "Umbrella", is an instantly memorable pop and R&B track.

The Hong Kong edition of Departure will be released on May 20 and contains his version of "Bleeding Love" as a bonus track. Jesse co-wrote the track with Ryan Tedder for Lenoa Lewis. The song was one of 2007's biggest single in the UK and it just scored the #1 spot in the US Billboard Hot 100. Speaking of the experience working on the song, he says, "It was very intense for me as a songwriter to have it be such a huge success. It has certainly encouraged me to write more for other artists."

The tracklisting for Departure is as follow.

Leavin'
It's Over
Rock You
How Do You Sleep?
Into You
Make Up
My Baby
Told You So
Relapse
Runnin'
Freaky
Not Your Enemy
bonus track
Bleeding Love



Watch: EMI Music: Jesse McCartney - Departure