Next hasn't been heard from in a while, but that will all change very soon. The group's R.L. currently appears on Ideal's new single "Whatever," and now he and the rest of Next are getting ready to release a new album.

The new album, "Welcome To Nextacy," arrives nearly three years after the group released its double-platinum debut, "Rated Next," which featured the up-tempo club hit "Too Close." That song, as well as producer Kay Gee (of Naughty By Nature), taught the trio an important lesson that they would take back to the studio for portions of their second album.

Next's Tweety, who has dropped the "y" and now just calls himself Tweet, told the MTV Radio Network that songs such as "Too Close" are vital element in keeping the group's fans happy.

"You know, a lot of R&B groups can't sing up-tempo [songs], or if they do, it'll be one they just threw together to hurry up and

finish their

album," Tweet said. "You hear it and [you'll] be like, 'Oh, Lord.' You're skippin' over it on the CD.

We take our up-tempos serious," he continued, "because our producer, Kay Gee from Naughty By Nature, taught us, 'You keep 'em in the club, you'll win. Dance, make 'em dance.'

Anybody can sing a ballad," Tweet offered. "Anybody can sing a slow record and sing about, 'I'll give you the sun, the moon, the rain, the stars, and the mountains.' But if you're comin' out with an up-tempo and it's a banger, that's why we won eight "Billboard" Awards for "Too Close" when we was out. We just tryin' to keep the party goin'. We still have ballads and our ghetto, slow records, but it's all good." [RealAudio]

The group hopes to release a song called "Wifey" as the first single from "Nextacy."

As R.L. recently

explained to the MTV Radio Network, the song is similar in tempo to "Too Close" and talks about a special girl who will hopefully materialize in the future.

'Wifey' is maybe not the best girl in the world," R.L. explained, "but she's the best girl for you in the world. You're not married, but that's my wifey; that's who you wanna be with forever. That's basically what it is. We kinda took 'Too Close' and 'Butta Love' and put 'em together. It's complimenting the women in our lives that we one day wanna have.

Wifey" should surface as a single in the coming weeks; Next is expected to release "Welcome To Nextacy" on June 10.