Non-Fiction
Ne-Yo
(Motown Records)
One Star
R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo is back with a new album, Non-Fiction, and like its predecessors – 2008's Year of the Gentlemen and 2010's sterling Libra Scale – it follows a loose theme of the highs and lows of relationships.
Unfortunately, where fans have previously tolerated Ne-Yo's faux-auteur approach due to the quality of the songs, Non-Fiction dismally fails because that balance is lost.
The album is full of cliched spoken-word intros and instrumentals that wrap around his least-inspired batch of songs yet. The lush Integrity follows the sing-talk flow of R Kelly's nutty epic Trapped in the Closet, but Ne-Yo lacks the commitment and charisma to pull off the debonair persona. Worse is the insipid Take You There – its a sea of fake come-ons and double entendres makes you wonder where Ne-yo's much-hailed lyrical smarts have gone.
The Pitbull collaboration Time of Our Lives manages to quicken the pulse of the album – the EDM track is a deserved club banger and the only high point in what is otherwise a truly dire offering.
