web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Author: GG

  • Ne-Yo’s Year Of The Gentlemen – The Guy Speaks My Language

    In this day and age, I buy albums thinking that there’s just as good of a chance that I’ll be disappointed in my purchase as there is that I’ll be pleased. It’s great to have artists like Ne-Yo who continue to strive to outdo themselves. I really didn’t catch on until after his first album In My Own Words. I knew the singles, but didn’t really get into him until his second album Because Of You (which I liked far more than Money Mike did). What I’ve learned that I enjoy about Ne-Yo is that he’s found a way to balance good lyricism that’s easy to sing along to with catchy hooks. A lot of times, in order to get on the radio, you have to give up the ability to actual write good songs. He’s been able to master both. And this album is his coming out party.

    I’m a sucker for love songs.
    It’s just who I am. I’d rather hear a killer ballad that touches me than almost any other kind of song. The Year Of The Gentlemen is right in my wheel house. If that isn’t your cup of tea, you might not like this album as much as I do. But you can’t deny his ability to emote honestly through his music. Unless Ne-Yo is just channeling certain feelings and writing stories, the guy’s heart was definitely broken. Many of the songs are about broken relationships and how much he’s screwed up and the regret that comes with it. Mad is a simple, yet effective piano ballad about the simplistic idiocy of most fights that couples have. Fade Into The Background has a bit of a funkier sound and only features a glimmer of piano, but is just a great narrative. The love of his life is getting married to another man and he’s at the wedding. And rather than fight for her, he’ll fade into the background.

    She looks so good in that white dress
    At the far end of the aisle
    Standing where I should be standing
    Some other man on his face there’s a smile
    I just walked in sat down silent
    I stood outside for awhile
    Wondering why did I come here
    Face it you messed up and now she’s with somebody else

    I’ve gone through something similar, though not in the same way, so it reads a bit true to me, but it’s just the way he puts his regretful emotion into it that makes the song work. Lie To Me might be just a bit overly dramatic, but he gets at a very strong feeling that couples go through, and it’s sung from the male perspective. I don’t want to know what I know to be true/What I need you to do, tell me another lie.

    He’s a pop genius.
    I guess the word genius might be a little too much. But you have to give credit where credit is do. He’s been apart of so many hit singles over the last few years that you can’t listen to the radio today without hearing something he’s touched. But he still saved some of his best for his album. He didn’t give it all away.

    The album opener and lead single Closer is Ne-Yo unlike we’ve heard him. It’s more club song than love song and features great Stargate production. You can tell it’s Stargate, but they take their signature sound to another level. Single is the same song featured on the New Kids On The Block album but he’s the only featured singer on this version. Sorry Joey Mac fans, this one’s all Ne-Yo. While it’s missing some of that New Kids charm, it features that same great harmonic sound. Nobody is his one ode to Michael Jackson on this album. He should’ve given it to Michael and it could’ve been a hit record. It features all of the crazy vocal sounds that MJ uses and he tries to sing it exactly like the man. He even uses an old MJ phrase as he sings, “Pretty mama,” in the same falsetto MJ does.

    What’s different about this album from his previous two?
    There’s a different vibe and confidence to his music. While every artist should strive to make that record that you can play all the way through without skipping, Ne-Yo succeeds at doing just that. It’s the one album that I’ve bought this year that I don’t have to skip through at all. He took a theme which was to show that guys can still put women on pedestals and do it in a classy way, and ran with it. It’s not weak to love your girl the right way. He’s not talking about how he’s going to sex his girl down. He’s talking about how proud he is of her for doing her own thing. Miss Independent should be included in the book of how to make meaningful songs that people can relate to. He might be one of the only guys to create a song based around the idea of a woman who walks like the boss and talks like the boss that doesn’t turn either the male or female audience off.

    She got her own thing
    That’s why I love her

    (Anyone notice the ode to Boomerang at the beginning of the video? Or really, the theme of the video. Starring Gabrielle Union as Jacqueline Broyer …)

    This guy speaks my language and if I were as talented as he, I’d have written these exact songs. My money is on Ne-Yo being one of the most respected artists of this generation. I hope next year is the year of the gentlemen too.

    Photo by bionicgrrrl and shared via creative commons

  • Friday Throwback – Rub You The Right Way

    I was thinking about what to use for this week and it hit me like a ton of bricks. A friend had sent me Ralph Tresvant’s video for Sensitivity and I figured that if Ralph looked silly, I remember Johnny Gill looking even more silly. He’s workin’ it in this video.

    – A shirtless Johnny wasn’t too impressive. Dude could’ve got in the gym a bit and hit the bench press.

    – Was he shiny suit man before Diddy was?

    – Check out JG’s moves. He’s got some frenetic moves.

    – Whenever I see his haircut, I think it looks like someone was building stairs.

    – His dance moves are like a wannabe Janet in the Rhythm Nation era, with MJ’s pelvic thrusts.

    – This might be one of the greatest lines in pop history – “Whenever I need to rub, I run her happiness.”

    – Why is he saluting and then crotch chopping all at the same time?

    – Is he wearing a leather tank top with that leather jacket and leather pants?

    – That’s an angry running man.

    Johnny’s Wikipedia page says that he, Ralph T, and Bobby B created a group called Heads Of State. Huh? Can’t they just get back with the rest of the New Edition fellas?

  • Sound Dialogue – Kanye’s Broken Heart

    Money Mike and I both written reviews on the new Kanye album, 808s & Heartbreak (here and here) and we had two different takes. Don’t worry, we’re almost done discussing the album, but I had to see what it was exactly that he saw that I didn’t.

    GG: We’ve both listened to Kanye West’s new album 808s & Heartbreak very intently. We’ve both reviewed it. You think it’s an album of the year candidate, while I think it’s daring, but uneven. After listening to it a few more times, do you still think it’s an album of the year candidate? And also, how does it rank with his other three albums, even if it’s a completely different style?

    MM: I definitely still think it’s an album of the year candidate…you discover more little intricacies the more you listen to it.

    It’s hard to compare it to the rest of his work if only because it sounds so atypical of a Kanye West album. I’m not really sure what to say there. It’s certainly the most interesting listen of his career.

    GG: Other than the obvious, which is the fact that it’s an album in which he only sings, what is it that makes it the most interesting album of his career?

    MM: It’s an unprecedented move for a hip-hop artist. He more or less abandoned rapping on this album in favor of almost making an indie-rock record. It’s a really ballsy move, and he does it at the great risk of alienating a large portion of his fan base.

    GG: I get that part. But is it only interesting because of that? Does it then become a gimmick for hip hop artists to try and be so far out of pocket that it’s the new trendy? Or is there something about this album that can’t be done by most hip hop artists? And what is that?

    MM: I don’t think most other artists will do that because they’re so afraid of losing their audience or their tough image. Kanye already has the audience that will listen to this album, whereas most rappers don’t. This is Kanye taking The Love Below to the next level. The question is going to be whether he’ll be able to balance the street credibility with his artistic credibility the way Andre 3000 has.

    GG: I am going to continue to challenge your description of the album as “interesting” because anything can be interesting. What makes Kanye’s “interesting” good?

    MM: Well, it’s not good because it’s interesting. I think the fact that it’s so different makes it a lot more interesting to listen to. It would be good even if it wasn’t Kanye West. I love the mood of the album, even if the lyricism isn’t where it needs to be, exactly.

    GG: That’s what I was looking for. Let’s go back to something you talked about earlier. You mentioned that this album could alienate his fanbase. If that’s the case, why go this route? Couldn’t he have been able to say the same things in the way we expect him to sound?

    MM: Well, I think part of it is definitely his ego. I think he wants to be seen as someone who can do things that would be dangerous for any other artist and still manages to keep his fan base, although whether he can actually do that remains to be seen.

    GG: How do you think hip hop America reacts to this? A lot of them see him as too different and too out there already.

    MM: I don’t think it’ll do a lot of damage. I just think that the hardcore hip-hop heads are gonna go “well, that’s Kanye” and just hope that the next album has more of a hip-hop flavor.

    GG: On the flip side, does this open him up to a new fan base that hasn’t listened to Kanye before?

    MM: Honestly, I don’t think so. Kanye already had this audience. You can’t sell as many records as Kanye these days without having that mass appeal, and he’s always had that indie cred. Those are the people that are buying 808s and ultimately that might prove to be a smart move, seeing how fickle rap fans usually are.

    GG: I want to touch on something that you spoke on earlier, and then add my own part to that. I enjoyed most of the same parts of the album as you did, especially the mood. But what about the singing? Doesn’t the singing have to touch you as well? I never expected him to sing well, but in order for me to call the album a classic, it has to be the total package. It’s not like he has a terrible voice, but he doesn’t have a singing voice either. And also, lyrically, I thought he could’ve really opened some eyes, but he chose to go the cutesy route way too often. Did those things bother you as much as they did me?

    MM: Not really. I guess I give him a certain amount of leeway based on the fact that he’s one of my favorite artists, but I was seriously expecting the Auto-Tune to bug me and it didn’t. He’s not a great singer, but you don’t need to be a great vocalist to bring across emotion, and I think he did a really great job at setting up the mood, both vocally and instrumentally. If this album has one Achilles heel, it’s the lyrics, which are pretty simple. But again, I kind of like the plainspoken aspect of it. He was going for the heart as opposed to trying to be abstract.

    GG: Talking about “going for the heart”, the material sums up what personally had to have been a terrible year for him. He lost his mother in a plastic surgery tragedy and then his engagement to Alexis Phifer ended as well. I may be a terrible person for saying this, but some part of me thinks that by changing up his entire style based on his feelings and emotions from those two events, it’s just another way of focusing on himself and giving the fans an alternate layer to show off his “superstar”.

    MM: I think that could be part of it. I don’t know if he’s that egotistical-I think a lot of his bluster is an act. However, I do think that he saw both an alternate way to express himself and a way to make news at the same time by going all the way left. I think he was trying to show another side of himself without cheapening the pain of the losses he experienced.

    GG: That’s probably a better way to say it.

    You compared this album to Andre 3000’s The Love Below. Even though it was very much expected for Andre 3000 to do something wacky, mainstream music fans embraced him. I don’t think Kanye has necessarily been embraced as much. Why do you think that is? Auto-Tune?

    MM: Nah, cause everyone and their mom is using Auto-Tune and having hits with it. I just don’t think Kanye has a record as catchy as Hey Ya! on his album. Simple as that. Love Lockdown isn’t that kind of singalong, cross-genre, cross-generation kind of song, and nothing on the album is, really.

    GG: Where does Kanye go from here? If he drops another record next year, what do you think it sounds like?

    MM: Depends on how this album does. If it does well, he probably goes left again. If not, then it’s back to original Kanye for the comeback album. LOL.

    GG: Alright Money Mike, that’s all I got for you. Next time, we should probably talk a little bit about the year in music. I know you’ll have a list of your top 30 albums. We should definitely talk about in a month or so.

    Photo of Kanye West by Phil Romans and shared via creative commons