Year of the Gentleman (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Ne-Yo (vocals); Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermanson, Syience, Shomari "Sho" Wilson (various instruments); Robert Taylor "R.T." (guitar, guitars); Bernt Rune Stray, Brandon Thomas , Jesse Bond (guitar); Igor Szwec, Emma Kummrow, Rob Martin, Olga Konopelsky, Gregory Teperman, Charles Parker (violin); Alexandra Leem, Davis A. Barnett (viola); Jennie Lorenzo (cello); Shea Taylor (strings, piano, synthesizer, bass instrument, drum programming); Micayle "the Mack" McKinney, Micayle McKinney (keyboards).

Audio Mixers: Kevin "KD" Davis; Jaymz Hardy Martin III; Phil Tan.

Recording information: Circle House Studios, Miami, FL; Roc The Mic Studios, New York, NY; The Carrington House, Atlanta, GA; The Studio, Philadelphia, PA; WEstlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA; ZAC Recording Studio, Atlanta, GA.

Photographer: Chris Stanford.

Arrangers: Chuck Harmony; Larry Gold.

The R&B singer, songwriter, producer, and all-around hit-making machine known as Ne-Yo works his magic yet again on YEAR OF THE GENTLEMAN. Different from your average R&B crooner of the day, Ne-Yo backs away from overt sexuality, instead aiming for subtle romantic ballads that vary from playful innocence to brooding melancholy. Lead single "Closer" is unique as Ne-Yo works his silky smooth voice over a poppy house track. Overall, YEAR OF THE GENTLEMAN is consistent in this respectfully seductive approach to the fairer sex. In "Nobody," an awed Ne-Yo sings the praises of his love interest--"Can't nobody strut like her/Can't nobody touch her"--and the second single, "Miss Independent" is as close to a feminist anthem as the R&B genre has come in years. Production work comes from Polow da Don, Stargate, Chuck Harmony, Stereotypes, and Ne-Yo himself.

Apart from a little more drama, a notion set with the desperate urgency of opening track "Closer," not much makes Year of the Gentleman, Ne-Yo's third album in as many years, all that different from In My Own Words or Because of You. If there are any real shake-ups in the songwriter/singer's m.o., they are subtle, not glaring, typically evident only in the production wrinkles brought by his collaborators. Had each album been separated by a few years of inactivity, this lack of change might be an issue, but since breaking out with Mario's "Let Me Love You" in 2004, Ne-Yo has been nothing if not steady and consistent, a constant presence in the R&B chart who probably could not devise a gimmick if his career depended upon it -- unless you hold those natural and often uncanny Michael Jackson vocalisms, as present as ever throughout highlight "Nobody," against him. What makes the album slightly less satisfying than Ne-Yo's first two albums is that the ballads are slightly sappier and overwrought. The odds are in his favor, however, that no one has written a more gorgeous song about slothful self-loathing. That song, "Why Does She Stay," forms the front end of a two-track patch of glorious gloom -- the album's center, both literally and figuratively -- complemented by "Fade into the Background," where he watches the one who got away get married. ~ Andy Kellman minimize