Like Every Day Is My Birthday

Ne-Yo “Champagne Life”

At the start of “Champagne Life” Ne-Yo welcomes the listener to his world, “where dreams and reality are one and the same.” That’s a pretty quick summary of what he’s up to on this song, and his current project in general. The song is a fantasy of easy-going luxury, the album and its accompanying music videos support a strange, only slightly coherent narrative about a trio of garbage men who are given amazing superpowers to protect their city in exchange for giving up the ability to fall in love. In either case, he’s going for extreme escapism, actively rejecting the negativity and limitations of the real world in favor of feel-good fantasy. Even the downside of his superhero scenario isn’t all that bad — it opens his characters up to hedonistic pursuits, and obviously they’ll end up falling in love anyway! That’s how these things work — setting up a melodramatic boundary only to knock it down. Love conquers all! Pleasure is king! What makes this work is a combination of Ne-Yo’s impeccable craft, and his total commitment to his own ridiculousness. He never lets the mask slip, and there are no cracks in the facade. If you enter his dream world, you’re going in all the way.

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