New Music: Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer

Ever since my sophomore year in high school when I first heard Thomas Callahan (aka Cee Lo Green) on the track 'Git Up, Git Out' off Outkast's debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, I've been hooked. I hadn't heard a rapper with such a unique and soulful voice and it was especially surprising to find it came out of a then 20 year old. As well known as Cee Lo is nowadays for his work with Gnarls Barkley and now a solo career, there are still a large population of his fans that might not know about his impressive rap credentials. Goodie Mob have two certified classic hip-hop albums with Soul Food and Still Standing and Cee Lo was by far the most talented member of that group. Although Cee Lo's first two solo albums tend to blend hip-hop and r&b quite nicely, it appears as he's abandoned rapping altogether for mostly soul music on The Lady Killer.

You've all certainly heard the first single off the album, 'Fuck You', a hundred times on the radio by now. As good as that song is there are a handful of songs on the new album that are way better than the already overplayed first single. The second single off the album is 'Bright Lights, Big City' which is the song mostly likely to get played in a club near you. To be honest, this album is really full of catchy, well written and beautifully sung tunes. Other highlights include my personal favorite song on the album 'Wildflowers' and 'Old Fashioned' which would sound nice on a mix next to Otis and Marvin*. The curve ball on the album is the cover of Band of Horses tune 'No One's Gonna Love You', which although I wasn't sure about it at first I'm really digging it now. Below is the video for the cover tune, the video is NSFW but it's one of the best videos I've seen in a while. It's always amazing when a director can tell a story like they tell in this video with almost zero dialog in under five minutes. Thoroughly impressive.

-Matt

*I am in no way comparing Cee Lo to Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye, just thought the song wouldn't sound out of place next to theirs.