‘Year of the Gentleman’

‘Year of the Gentleman’

Ne-Yo (Def Jam)

Grade: B

By spiffing up and calling his album “Year of the Gentleman,” Ne-Yo wants to remind hip-hoppers and new-jack soul heads alike of pop’s standard-bearers in song and style. But it’s not the tilt of a man’s hat or the cut of his coat that puts audiences in mind of legends like Frank and Nat. It’s how he wears his wiles, musically and sartorially. And that suits the smooth-as-silk crooner/producer/songwriter extraordinaire fine.

The hit-maker (he’s written for Beyonce and Rihanna), who spent his first albums sounding like a cross between R. Kelly and Stevie Wonder, understands that melody comes before rhyme and rhythm and gives “Closer” an impressively anthemic chorus to go with its chintzy Euro-disco swirl. Quickly flitting and funky in a chic way, “Miss Independent” is one of Gentleman’s most bracing tracks. Ne-Yo rarely got it right when it came to the fast stuff, so it’s impressive that he’s figured it out. Still, it’s in heartbroken ballads such as “So You Can Cry” and “Stop This World” that Ne-Yo shows off the big emotions and the bigger-still choruses — the catches in his throat and the tunes. You don’t need a fancy suit for that.

—A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Doll Domination’

Pussycat Dolls (Geffen)

Grade: D

It’s shaping up to be quite an autumn for American feminism. First, we have Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, about whom you might have read something in the last few weeks. Now the Pussycat Dolls, a burlesque troupe turned top-40 act, have made a collection of electro-pop songs that are the opposite of sex: belligerent come-ons and odes to singledom stripped of pleasure, adventure or anything resembling fun.

Both instances capture a particular moment in the woman-as-cultural-cipher debate, but at least Palin’s nouveaux-“Fargo” accent doesn’t come with a leather corset.

“When I Grow Up” is the album’s first single and ideological centerpiece. Built off a filling-loosening house beat and the Dolls’ smug cackling, it’s so shameless in its celebration of the monoculture of moneyed youth that it transcends taste. It’s more of a “95 Theses” as penned by Kim Kardashian and nailed to Viacom’s front door with the shards of a broken BlackBerry — we demand to be on TV; to drive nice cars; to have groupies.

There’s nothing that comes within sniffing distance of “Don’t Cha,” the Cee-Lo-penned bit of winking R&B that announced their presence to the world. Instead, “Doll Domination” is a series of signifiers to other, more interesting, moments in recent pop culture.

Especially after a summer when something as weird as “A Millie” or frothy as “American Boy” could rule the radio, the record seems less an album than a list of itemized expenses: a few grand for a twinkly piano ballad, a few more for the galloping Timbaland swipe and a few hundred to wash away the film of cynicism that coats everyone involved with “Doll Domination.”

SEmDAugust Brown, Los Angeles Times

‘A Long Time Coming’

Wayne Brady (Peak Records)

Grade: A

The idea of Wayne Brady putting out a solid R&B record may be funny, but “A Long Time Coming” proves to be no joke.

The production team The Heavyweights (Destiny’s Child, Martina McBride) assists on the set of 12 soulful tunes that will have fans of urban adult contemporary music and soft rock extremely satisfied.

The Emmy Award-winning TV personality and comedian sings about love and relationships on his debut CD, from nonmaterialistic beauty (“All Naturally”) to the deceptions of beauty (“Beautiful Ugly”) to the album’s first single, “Ordinary,” about a simple, average love.

Though Brady successfully delivers his own sound on “A Long Time Coming,” his reinvention of classic songs is the album’s highlight. From his cool take on Stevie Wonder’s “All I Do” to his impressive spin on the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love,” Brady’s voice is pure and soothing. His cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” is impeccable, and somewhat reminiscent of Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles.

Brady works as a co-writer on four of the album’s tracks. Three of those, “F.W.B.,” “Back In the Day” and “I Ain’t Movin’,” are uptempo grooves that serve as the album’s weaker moments. On the closing track, “You and Me,” Brady tackles his recent divorce, singing: “She’s got your eyes, that crooked smile of mine/So there’ll always be you and I/And though things have changed, one thing remains the same/We’ll still be a family, even if there’s no you and me.” Former Mrs. Brady may come back after hearing this one.

—Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press