It’s been nearly 3 years since Ne-Yo’s last album R.E.D and over the years we’ve seen a whole new side of this R&B artist as he’s delved deeper into the world of pop and dance and move further away from his original sound.
His new release Non-Fiction however, brings back hints of the original Ne-Yo yet still catering for fans who favour his more recent sounds.
Ne-Yo has always taken pride in his songwriting ability before all else and Non-Fiction gives us plenty of food for thought with stories of love and lust throughout. The tracks that rely on his vocal and storytelling are where we hear Ne-Yo really shine. ‘Story Time’ allows us to hear an in-depth conversation between a couple flirting with the idea of a threesome that speaks from the man and womans point of view. The acoustic guitar and light harmonies allow Ne-Yo to narrate the detailed conversation and results in what is Ne-Yo’s strongest performance on the album.
He was not short of features on this album either with a list of big names making an appearance. The surprising sound of Schoolboy Q welcomes us to the album even before we hear Ne-Yo on opening track ‘Run’, which unfortunately makes it sound more like a Schoolboy Q track that Ne-Yo has featured on. This also goes for the tracks ‘Money Can’t Buy’ featuring Jeezy and ‘She Knows’ with Juicy J as both tracks compliment the rapper’s styles more than Ne-Yo’s leaving less room for him to fully express himself. However the track ‘One More’ featuring T.I. allows Ne-Yo to really express his voice whilst T.I.’s verse give us an additional point of view of the boy meets girl in the club story.
The Ibiza sounding tracks on the album, despite being appealing to the masses, did bring this album down though. The sounds of ‘Coming With You’ follows the overused mainstream house and party in the sun sound that makes the album lose it’s full credibility. Ne-Yo is an artist who is more than capable of producing a number 1 hit that stands out rather than fades into the playlist of cheesy club songs. With the music industry struggling you can understand why Ne-Yo has pulled out the Ibiza sound card and he’s not the first artist to do this by a long shot, but when Ne-Yo was at his best on this album it was when he stayed loyal to his roots and didn’t follow the crowd.
