It Hits Different is sexy. While every note of Norman Brown’s fourteenth album conforms to the smooth jazz format, the Kansas City’s guitarist’s 2023 album is designed to stimulate romance rather than relaxation. Not coincidentally, it’s the most popular jazz-adjacent album released by a Kansas City musician not named Pat Metheny last year. Songs featuring vocals possess the crossover appeal of hits by Brown’s role model George Benson while the funk-forward instrumental tracks are the smooth jazz equivalent of Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro.” The album certainly does hit differently.