The Lady Killer

"Love Gun!  Oh, you shot me baby!"

Cee-lo Green, better known for his work with Danger Mouse in the group Gnarls Barkley, released his third solo album, "The Lady Killer," yesterday, November 9, 2010.  The soulful singer gained popularity with the huge success of "St. Elsewhere" (2006), known for its hit single "Crazy," which he released under Gnarls Barkley.  His fame continued to climb with their 2008 release of "The Odd Couple."  However, before there was Gnarls Barkley, there was plain ol' Cee-lo Green.  In 2002 he released "Cee-lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections" and in 2004 released "Cee-lo Green... Is The Soul Machine," both of which climbed the charts successfully in the US and the UK.  Six years since his last solo release, "The Lady Killer" has received overall positive reviews from critics, averaging an 81 on Metacritic with scores of 80 from BBC Music and The Rolling Stone.

Now, onto a more personal note, I have been anticipating the release of this album since I heard of its release this summer.  Cee-lo has always fascinated me through Gnarls Barkley, but not until this year did I get into his solo work, mainly because I never thought of trying to find it.  Though I have never listened to "Cee-lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections," I haven't been able to put "Cee-lo Green... Is The Soul Machine" down for months.  Everyone knows Cee-lo is an incredible singer with and epic set of pipes, but what impressed me from "Soul Machine" was his vocal versatility and the variety of his works.  (The song "Sometimes" is performed in spoken word and is by far my favorite track.)  Cee-lo also manages to spread the album out in terms of mood, rapping/singing, and also has some notable guest appearances, Timbaland and Ludacris among them.  With the release of his new album, I was stoked and expected the same diversity.  I think you know where I'm going with this.

I had high expectations going into "The Lady Killer."  Not only had I been incredibly satisfied with Gnarls Barkley as a whole and "Soul Machine," but I had also been incredibly enticed by the release of Cee-lo's single from the album, "Fuck You."  I have to say, unfortunately, that I'm a little let down by the album as a whole.  Let me reiterate that, just to clarify: as a whole.  The album, overall, pretty good;  half of the album, excellent.  Where "The Lady Killer" falls short is with its versatility and creativeness.  The overall production of the album is incredible and each and every song is well worth a listen.  However, where "Soul Machine"'s songs ranged from harder rap ("Glockapella") to spoken word ("Sometimes") to romantic songs ("All Day Love Affair") to club hits ("I'll Be Around feat. Timbaland"), just to name a few, "The Lady Killer" seems to consist of a much narrower variety of song.  This may be more of a personal issue, but, with the amount of creativity Cee-lo has expressed both in his past solo work and with Gnarls Barkley, I was expecting more.

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, onto why the album is still worth a listen.  The album starts off with a bang and really sucks you in.  By far one of the best tracks on the album, "Bright Lights Bigger City" has a big, sexy sound and subject matter.  As mentioned before, the production is great and Cee-lo sounds fantastic.  Other song shave the same quality of grandeur, such as "Love Gun," "Fuck You," and "Bodies."  Unfortunately, all of these songs are within the first half of the album.  As the album progresses, it seems to lose it's direction and falls into a bit of monotony.  The second half of the album, while still a good listen, seems to be a constant drone of hopeless romanticism as can easily be seen from the song titles: "I Want You," "Cry Baby," "Fool For You," "No One's Gonna Love You," etc. (hardly "The Lady Killer" I was anticipating).  However, that's not to say that these aren't great tracks.  "I Want You" is sure to get stuck in your head and definitely has the sexy, yet dark mood I've always associated with Cee-lo.  Possibly the strongest song in the second half of the album is "Fool For You," which has a heavier feel than several of the other songs on the album and is quite possibly the most soul filled song on the entire album, in particular when Cee-lo belts "Oh, sweet sugar, I surrender/ I don't want no other woman, oh baby you win!"

"The Lady Killer" definitely isn't Cee-lo's strongest album to date, however, that doesn't mean it isn't great in and of itself.  "Fuck You" will undeniably be a hit both in the independent and popular music scenes.  The grandeur and sexiness of "Bright Lights Bigger City" and "Love Gun" stand out as the best tracks on the album, while "Fool For You" and "Bodies" show that Cee-lo is still a master of emotion and knows how to bring out his more serious side as well as his darker side.  The lyrics of the entire album are without doubt a work of are and show that Cee-lo is still a lyrical genius and poet at heart.  The beats are fantastic and each song has it's own character, mood, and story to it.  While "The Lady Killer" doesn't express the same versatility as "Cee-lo Green... Is The Soul Machine" it manages to stand on its own as a great album that will undoubtedly be successful.  In the end, there's no way I can be mad at Cee-lo.  I just love him too god damn much.  So, go on.  Listen to it.  Now.