Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 09/16/2008
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, All Music Guide
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