A 'Guilt'y pleasure

It’s not the second coming. Michael Jackson is, in fact, dead.

“Libra Scale,” Ne-Yo’s latest album, sounds similar to a New Testament for old fans of the King.

This particular pastor preaches a slightly different set of values, though. Ne-Yo spreads his modern R&B themes of love, seduction and what might be called “giving” through ten parables of true accounts of swagger, if you’re taking the lyrics literally.

The good news is that the album has songs definitely worth consideration. The catch is that listeners may feel as if “Libra Scale” is just another adaptation on something they’re regularly exposed to, as the majority of the songs are just more generic stories talking about the power of love or nonspecific descriptions of the flyest girl ever.

“Libra Scale” stands out on the tracks co-authored by notables Ryan Leslie and Chuck Harmony.

Another highlight of the album is Fabolous’ guest sermon on “Crazy Love,” which saves the track from the blandness of musical purgatory, or worse.

As a cohesive work, Ne-Yo’s fourth studio revision leaves listeners with little hope of discovering a classic album for their collection, but as they always have, the audiences can pick out the parts of the album they like, ignore the ones they don’t and still call themselves fans.