Music can be an extremely fickle and brutal industry, and you needn’t look further than the countless R&B stars thrown to the wayside from the late ’90s and early ’00s for evidence of this fact. When they were big they were BIG and Ne-Yo was one of the biggest of them all, with a massive new hit or feature seemingly every 6 months, he was as ubiquitous as they came. Then things shifted, drastically, and his type of more traditional R&B was no longer popular. That hasn’t stopped him from trying though. Good Man is his latest attempt at showing that traditional R&B still matters. I don’t think he makes a strong enough case to sway general opinion, but he does put out some of his most compelling material in some years. His sound is still classic Ne-Yo fare, so you won’t hear him push into the more alternative, rap infused, direction R&B has taken, and he’s always had an international flare to his music but there’s even more of a push for those latin/dancehall/island vibes and he does it better than most. Maybe it’s true they say distance makes things grow fonder because after not hearing his type of music/musical sensibilities in a long time, Good Man felt like a breath of fresh air in the overly serious climate R&B finds itself in. He won’t change the direction the genre has taken, but it is a welcome presence nonetheless.
I cannot deny it, I cannot deny it (yeah)
I done broke a few hearts (yeah), done my share of lying
I knew how to keep it quiet, I knew how to hide it
Or if I ever did get caught, I’d just deny it
If my mama knew the thangs I did, she wouldn’t like it– “APOLOGY”
Have you heard Good Man? What’d you think about it? Do you think R&B is missing Ne-Yo’s type of musical sensibilities? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to leave your own ratings and reactions for the album.
