Ne-Yo Year of the Gentleman

• Closer
• Nobody
• Single
• Mad
• Miss Independent
• Why Does She Stay
• Fade Into The Background
• So You Can Cry
• Part Of The List
• Back To What You Know
• Lie To Me
• Stop This World

R&B artists who sing well and write their own songs have become a rarity. As such, Ne-Yo's novelty garnered his 2006 debut In My Own Words much attention. The singer and songwriter passed the people's test with a combination of woeful (yet occasionally tasteless) R&B ballads, and his physical charms -- perhaps a shade more of the latter. Ne-Yo attempts to clean up his act on his third album Year of the Gentleman by paying homage to Rat Pack era sophistication –- which evidently means aggressive B&T bangers like "Closer" instead of come hither ballads in the vein of Sammy Davis, Jr.

Abstract by Dan Nishimoto