Seldom has the concept been less essential to a concept album than on Ne-Yo’s new Libra Scale, which the R&B singer conceived as an epic sci-fi romance about star-crossed superhero lovers. A short film meant to accompany the album was aborted, but some of the backstory comes across in Ne-Yo’s music videos and in the Stan Lee comic that accompanies the album. Mercifully, though, little of that silliness spills over into the actual music, which is suave and dignified, elegantly updating Michael Jackson throwbacks with escapist, good-life fantasies. Save for the failed lead single “Beautiful Monster,” a graceless dance-pop crossover attempt from Ne-Yo’s usually reliable production team Stargate, this is contemporary R&B at its sweetest.
Curiously, Libra Scale isn’t the only comic-book-themed album out this week. Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the latest from alt-rock thespians My Chemical Romance, assigns each band member a super-hero identity, and in its deluxe edition is packaged with a bonus EP, a 48-page book, a wooden bracelet, one of four poly resin prop ray-guns and “a matching mask housed in a white box adorned with a photo sleeve.” Seldom has a band gone to such lengths to assure its biggest fans will never get laid. Robyn, the Swedish dance-pop singer who fans swear should be one of the biggest stars in the world even though her personality isn’t remotely bold enough to actually make a dent on American radio, finishes her latest trilogy of EPs with Body Talk Pt. 3.
For an example of why Robyn will never be an actual star, look no further than Ke$ha, the chart sensation who this week follows up her debut album with a nine-song EP Cannibal. Over at Allmusic.com, the great Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls her “a pop star lacking pop star looks and a pop star voice. She’s all ravenous id, spitting at strangers and backstabbing friends, humiliating hotties, and laughing at the wreckage in her wake.” The EP, he writes, is “just relentless, pulsating trash, its unapologetic vulgarity chipping away at your better impulses. Kesha is either smart or shameless enough ultimately the difference doesn’t really matter, not with music designed to appeal to your worst instincts to realize her calling card is her unrepentant filthiness.”
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After a year and a half of ubiquity including over a dozen appearances music videos this year alone Lil Wayne’s manic protégé Nicki Minaj releases her first album. The music is nearly as restless as her rapping, a rainbow of contemporary pop, rap, New Wave and what can only be called at this point Drake’n’B.
Also: Kanye West released an album.
