Ne-Yo

Shaffer Smith established himself as both a songwriter and a recording artist. In My Own Words introduced his solo voice in 2006, with So Sick turning the simple act of hearing a love song into a problem that cannot quite be escaped. Sexy Love offered a lighter counterweight. The singing is controlled and supple, leaving the words legible even when the melody becomes more elaborate. There is a useful economy to those early records: the strongest idea rarely needs a crowded arrangement.

Because of You followed in 2007 and sharpened the rhythmic side of that sound. Its title track moves with a crisp, almost restless precision. Alongside the ballads, it shows why Ne-Yo fit so naturally into the shifting space between contemporary R&B and mainstream pop. The voice can sit inside a beat rather than merely float over it.

Year of the Gentleman brought Closer and Miss Independent into the same album in 2008. One pushes towards the dance floor; the other rests on a more spacious groove. Both preserve the sense of a singer paying attention to the contour of each phrase. His work writing for other performers is part of the same musical story, rather than a separate credential. The craft becomes easier to hear when several songs are played together: a conversational opening, a telling detail and a chorus that gives the feeling a clean outline. These records capture a period when R&B songwriting and electronic pop production were changing one another in particularly interesting ways.