I picked up Cee Lo Green’s The Lady Killer yesterday. I grew up on Motown. Neither of my parents listen to Motown anymore, but for some reason that was most of what I remember as a kid. Yeah I listen to tons of guitar-driven rock stuff, but I love that Motown sound, and the 70’s funk, soul, and R&B that followed. This record manages to cover pretty much all of those styles, but with all of the production quality, instrumentation, and musical lessons learned of today. And Cee Lo’s voice is amazing. He has power and gravel and drama in his voice that reminds me of another great soul vocalist with the surname Green. And his sense of humor. It’s seen in some of the Gnarls Barkley stuff, and of course seen with this song and video. Plus you have to have a bit of a sense of humor to put something like his song “Old Fashioned” out on a major label record. He just absolutely cloned the 60’s Motown sound for this one. Nothing noticeably new in this one, even has a strings section that sounds just like the old stuff. Pop hooks, humor, soul, what more could you ask for out of a record.
