Amazon.com
If the mark of the skilful Lothario is the one who knows to always tell his lover what she wants to hear, surely Def Jam’s R&B sensation Ne-Yo--aka Los Angeles singer-songwriter Shaffer Chimere Smith--is one of the greatest of them all. On his third album, Year of the Gentleman, Chimere channels his hitmaking talents into a suite of R&B songs that are more respectful than rampant in their approach to the romancing. “Single" is a song that reaches out to all the lonely girls, Ne-Yo promising, “I'll be your boyfriend til the song goes off," while the Stargate-produced “Miss Independent," lit up by neon synthesizers, suggests Smith isn't too concerned with his own machismo to test out flipping the traditional gender roles, serenading a girl who's a player in her own right: “Everything she got, you bet she bought it." The album is at its best with the central, two-song movement of “Why Does She Stay" and “Fade Into the Background"--the former finding Ne-Yo questioning his own neglectful nature over a backdrop of shimmering keys, the latter a sombre piece that finds our narrator accepting the news that his lover has found another with a rare, heart-rending magnanimity. --Louis Pattison

Product Description
"Closer," written by Ne-Yo and produced by Stargate, is the first single from Ne-Yo's upcoming third album, YEAR OF THE GENTLEMAN, set to arrive in stores June 24th. It is the follow-up to Because Of You (released May 2007), which received this year's Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and In My Own Words (February 2006) - both of which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.

In addition to his Contemporary R&B Album award, Ne-Yo earned four other Grammy nominations this year, including two for his collaboration with Rihanna, "Hate That I Love You" (which he co-wrote), namely Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance Duo/Group; as well as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his #2 hit "Because Of You"; and Record of the Year for Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" (which he co-produced). Ne-Yo's Grammy recognition followed up the UK's 13th annual MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards in September 2007 - the only televised European Awards Show solely dedicated to urban music and culture - at which he won for Best Song ("Because Of You") and Best R&B Act.

Ne-Yo's RIAA platinum debut album In My Own Words was nominated for a Grammy as Best Contemporary R&B Album. It spun off three chart-topping hits, starting late-2005 with his debut Def Jam single, the #1 Grammy-nominated "So Sick," followed by "When You're Mad" and "Sexy Love." Ne-Yo capped 2006 as Male R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards. At the The 21st Annual Soul Train Music Awards in February 2007, Ne-Yo won the Coca-Cola Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap new Artist for "Sexy Love."

1. Closer
2. Nobody
3. Single
4. Mad
5. Miss Independent
6. Why Does She Stay
7. Fade Into The Background
8. So You Can Cry
9. Part Of The List
10. Back To What You Know
11. Lie To Me
12. Stop This World

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018QCXGO/?tag=imwan-20

'Bored' By R&B, Ne-Yo Experiments On New Album

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/art ... 1003791284

Ne-Yo says he didn't plan to rush his new album, "Year of the Gentleman," his third release in as many years, into production.

"I wanted the third album to be something a little different from the first and second as far as the essence and the sound of what I was doing," he tells Billboard of the Def Jam set, due June 24. "So I was going to chill for a minute and really take some time to figure out what I wanted that to be. Fortunately, it didn't take me that long, which is why the album's coming out now."

Judging by the handful of tracks previewed by Billboard, "Year of the Gentleman" does indeed offer something a little different from traditional R&B: "Closer" is a Stargate-produced club track with pulsing strobe-light synths and a high-energy house beat that calls to mind Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music." "So You Can Cry" sports a mellow, easy-listening vibe, with Ne-Yo making a priceless rhyme of "pity party" and "calamari." Guitars and cymbals figure prominently in "What's the Matter," which Ne-Yo likens to "a Beatles-style rock record."

In addition to Stargate, collaborators on the set include members of Ne-Yo’s Atlanta-based Compound Entertainment crew (the HeavyWeights, Shay Taylor, Chuck Harmony), as well as Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and J.R. Rotem, who struck radio gold last year with his protege Sean Kingston.

Beyond a tour with Alicia Keys and Jordin Sparks that begins tomorrow (April 19) in Hampton, Va., Ne-Yo's 2008 campaign also includes at least two forays into movies and TV: a script in development at Fox Atomic that he says "is going to be in the vein of 'Purple Rain'" and an animated series about which he’s in talks with Cartoon Network. "For me it’s always, ‘Let’s make the next one,’" Ne-Yo says as he prepares to head back to the video shoot. "'What’s the next thing going to be?'"

Additional reporting by Hillary Crosley, N.Y.

Is this a hip-hop abbreviation for "Neil Young"?????

I got the Closer single yesterday, it's really sharp.