Ne-Yo

While nothing on here is exactly revolutionary, little fails to satisfy. Tracks "Addicted" and "Sex with My Ex" pine for the panty-snatching, party-starting bluster of R. Kelly, but it's the quieter, more modest songs that allow Ne-Yo to steal home. "Leaving Tonight," his duet with Jennifer Hudson, is cast over lonesome organ swirls and is as close to sublime as modern R&B is allowed to get, while lead-off single "Because of You" is predictable but nevertheless fantastic. Ne-Yo's boyish voice is utterly addictive.

Ne-Yo denies he's a sex addict, but he sure sounds like a workaholic. The R&B love man
wrote BeyoncŽ's "Irreplaceable" and Rihanna's "Unfaithful," and now he's out with his
second album -- all since the last Usher CD. In the brilliant 2006 hit "So Sick," he couldn't
stand to hear another love song, but he's got a whole album of them here, from "Sex With
My Ex" (fractured Prince funk) to "Because of You" (off Michael Jackson's wall).... More >