Here's how it goes. On Don't Be Afraid, the 3rd last tune is Step
Across The Line, which we consider a high water mark for hot, electric
swing.

We will omit the details on why this is so -- and we will especially
omit detailed discussion of the qualities of the vocals and lead
guitar playing (with some regret, since so much can be said) -- and
only point out: the shining dynamics, like, coming way down in the 3rd
verse ("woman of my own"), building partway back up for the
played-once section "there's never been a man, lived a perfect life",
then taking it on up for the solos; the only-some-of-the-times
alteration to the chord pattern, in which, instead of the normal 8
bars of the I chord (following the long IV), there are two bars on the
I and then a colorful intermediate flat-5 (or something) overtop a
truly jazzy walking bass for 6 bars, before advancing to the V for the
turnaround; the gutsy syncopated guitar-and-drum shots woven into the
solo towards the end; and the remarkable keyboard, bass and drum
performances throughout.

Returning to the main argument now, we note how the final fade-out of
Step Across The Line has burning guitar and vocals that leaves the
listener buzzing, incredulous, elatedly exhausted. However, the next
song is It's All Over (IAO), a major scale mid-tempo R&B burner.
Terrible miscalculation! The listener's emotions are unprepared, and
cannot take in all that It's All Over offers!

Namely: the rolling feel of the arpeggiated chords on tremolo guitar;
several subtle, but with enough attention paid by the listener,
shocking vocal phrases: the end of "there wasn't one thing wrong"
(going into falsetto), both the start and the end of the line
following the guitar solo ("I know" and "running to"), and the "last"
in "I'm glad we found out at last"; the plaintive horns; a guitar solo
that twinkles, then growls; the dramatic and soaring (and used-once)
chord pattern alteration played behind "and NOW we FIN'lly know" (a
"II-V" into the IV chord, thus, a V-I relative to the song's root).

So, this song sequencing obscures the qualities of IAO, making it too
easy to be perceived as filler. One must make the effort to listen to
IAO with fresh ears.

It's also a bit of a shame, although a lesser one, that IAO is then
followed by Laugh Out Loud. But this time the problem is different,
although the reasons have not been fully excavated by this researcher.
(Side note: out of respect, Laugh Out Loud will not be abbreviated.)
One song is in the major scale, the other in the minor; one R&B, the
other a rock ballad. We only hypothesize: similarity of tempo? that
even though lyrically the first is about breakup while the second is a
melancholy celebration, in the latter the melancholy is sufficiently
intense so that both reach similar degrees of sad?

How to understand both of these unfortunate instances of song
sequencing? It may be that RCB had not yet discovered the approach of
the short song-between-songs. It's an approach we find fruitfully
employed on Shoulda Been Home, where the one-minute Renew Blues --
dazzling in its own right -- restores (renews) the mind to a state
into which Help Me Forget can gently wash in, Far Away having receded
to a point sufficiently far away.

But this conclusion is just preliminary and tentative. As we expect,
with more study, more is revealed.