The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

Before I continue with this post, It should be noted that by and large I’m really not much of an R&B fan. Acutally check that…I don’t get very enthused when I hear the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Usher and the other posers that merely jump on the train and leave the actual substance and feeling back at the station. That said, I do like Ne-Yo. What I like about Ne-Yo is that he’s a bit of a throwback. He sings but more impressively he writes. Not only does he write and produce for himself, he’s also responsible for writing for some of the bigger hits you may have heard on the radio the last few years. He’s almost a modern day Smokey Robinson, one could say. I said almost.

Mr. Ne-Yo has a new record coming out entitled Libra Scale due out sometime in September. The record, the singer’s fourth will feature the brand new single Beautiful Monster which sounds like a much darker version of the hit single Closer from his last record 2008’s Year Of The Gentleman. How is it? Hmm…It’s quite apparent that Ne-Yo is channeling some serious Michael Jackson here as this is the kind of song he and Quincy Jones could have put together over breakfast and created a hit during the eighties. To be honest, I don’t have a fully formed opinion of the song just yet. It should work in the clubs where the Jersey Shore/bridge and tunnel crowd would eat it up but as a sign of Ne-Yo’s progression as an artist….? I’ll just have to leave this one as an incomplete for now.

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“Beautiful Monster” by Ne-Yo, taken from the forthcoming Island-Def Jam release, “Libra Scale”