"Year of the Gentleman" by Ne-Yo

(Def Jam Recordings)

Ne-Yo's third album in three years starts like a spaced-out blend of Michael Jackson and Usher (who's already a singing, dancing MJ homage himself), set to a digitized toolbox of 80s pop production styles. That vocal lineage isn't surprising, Ne-Yo's written several songs for Usher and is rumored to be involved with Michael Jackson's forthcoming album. In fact, Ne-Yo's transition to superstardom is one of those backstage success stories: he wrote chart-topping songs for just about every pop star of the last decade before making his own name.

The reigning king of suave pop-R&B (as opposed to R. Kelly's more gangsta-fied sub-genre) begins Year of the Gentleman with a bang. 'Closer' starts with pumping base, slows for an acoustic guitar interlude, then blends the two into a mounting affair of snappy samples and squeaky sound effects. 'Nobody', meanwhile, sounds uncannily like an updated Michael Jackson classic (something from Thriller or Bad, probably). The self-conscious dance floor serenade 'Single' (produced by Polow Da Don) rounds out an engrossing opening.

Things start to go downhill though, when the next track, 'Mad', sounds almost identical. By the time Ne-Yo whips out a line like "I won't attend your pity party, I'd rather go have calamari" on 'So You Can Say', it's already clear the album's second half is fishy. There are a few more gems here, like 'Miss Independent', a gentle, clubby love song updated with an eye to gender equality. 'Back to What You Know' is also memorable for being largely instrumental on a predominantly cybernetic album. In fact, overly uniform production helps keep this from being more than a routine R&B release.

Another part of Gentleman's problem is the lack of any guest appearances. For an artist whose ubiquity is partially a result of his collaborations (both as a hook-singer for rappers and a verse-writer for other singers), the decision to go it solo over eleven tracks was admirable, but risky. The single-handed album is sort of like the Mt. Everest of R&B, and despite Ne-Yo's recent ascendancy (as he sings on 'Stop this World': "I've never felt so high as I do now"), his career hasn't peaked yet.

A similar version of this review appears in The L Magazine, and can be read here.