Good day, SoulBouncers! The fellas are putting out work in force this week aren't they? This week sees highly-anticipated releases by Raphael Saadiq, Ne-Yo, Darius Rucker (with a country album, no less), Wayne Brady (?) and the legendary George Duke, who never really seems to take himself too seriously. What are you buying this week? What are you buying next week? Wait, are you buying anything?

OUT THIS WEEK

Ne-Yo: Year of the Gentleman (Anticipation Rating: 2 out of 5)
Decent reviews are already cropping up for Ne-Yo's third release in five minutes. This is to be expected; Ne-Yo is part of a class of new school R&B stars that manages to keep his work and name in the Pop orbit simply by not taking a break, and the mainstream can't seem to get enough of him. However, no one (and by "no one" we mean "actual people") seems to be tripping over themselves in response to his singles. We begin to wonder if the practice of over-marketing R&B artists in the same manner as Pop stars is beginning to backfire, as the kid really hasn't been able to marinate since Closer. [Amazon]

Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It (Anticipation Rating: 4)
What more can be said about Raphael Saadiq? Start with our interview of him, if you please. Buy the album, and then come back and tell us how much you loved it.[Amazon]

Darius Rucker: Learn to Live (Anticipation Rating: 1) [Amazon]
Wayne Brady: Long Time Coming (Anticipation Rating: 1) [Amazon]
George Duke: Dukey Treats (Anticipation Rating: 1) [Amazon]

Rounding out this week's releases, we have a little something from every spectrum of Black music. Either way, our purchasing selections this week represent a veritable sausage party. Darius Rucker, who doesn't like to be called "Hootie" is releasing a Country album, probably inspired in part by his diasterous Burger King commercial. Learn to Live might see Darius in a more comfortable lane than Back to Then, and if anyone picks it up, let us know. Whatever. Wayne Brady's curiously-titled Long Time Coming drops this week as well, like we've been anticipating it or something. We've heard nothing from it, and don't intend to. And finally we have George Duke's Dukey Treats. (He really just handed that one to us, didn't he?) Check out a review by our friends at SoulTracks and take a gander at the cover. George Duke is my hero.

By the way, the fact that Thicke and J-Hud are dropping soon is not lost on us. So, if this week's selections don't look too appealing, we can have this discussion next week.

Dukey Treats. Heh.