The Lady Killer

The Lady Killer review

Hero of collective labor

Many knew that one day Cee-Lo Green, a talented hip-hop and ne-soul performer, would release a powerful solo record. The only thing that mattered was the timing. This singer’s musical career began as early as at the dawn of the nineties when he became a part of quite a reputed hip-hop formation called Goodie Mob. After gaining some experience the young man decided to go sidewise and recorded a couple of solo efforts neither being anything remarkable. Believing that it was simply the wrong time, the artist kept working in various projects including the well-known duet Gnarles Barkley with DJ Danger Mouse. Then, in 2010, Cee-Lo Green presented his smashing single Fuck You! Said number was issued in a number of versions and in some countries was even renamed to Forget You! In certain European states it became a number one hit. The singer himself seemed not quite ready for such reaction to his single and, inspired by its success, delivered the full-length record a month earlier before the initially scheduled date. The CD was titled The Lady Killer.

Love for the past and disappointment in love

After quote a mediocre intro, The Lady Killer Theme, we get to know Bright Lights Bigger City, not a song as much as a whole atmosphere. Michael Jackson used to do things like this one back in the late eighties. Satisfied is one more song whose roots come from the same decade. The singer’s lyrical character is experienced in love affairs, insulted or, maybe, disappointed, and this is why intended to have his revenge. Actual killing does not occur here, yet the guy threatens with firearms (Love Gun). It is an old observation that Cee-Lo Green is particularly good when he takes up soul singing and demonstrates the whole arsenal of his vocal skills, reaching high notes and getting down to the low voice of his expressing dissatisfaction or irritation. While the music itself does not expose any present negative emotions for it consists of classic disco beats and horns straight out of cheerful church hymns, the lyrics follow the issues of separation, denial and other signs of man and woman conflicts. The nostalgic effect is even stringer due to themes resembling those from spy movies, like in Bodies.

Cee-Lo Green chooses soul

Cee-Lo Green delivered The Lady Killer when he was already thirty six years old. In the hip-hop world, true star performers usually taste their universal fame long before getting this age. Convinced that glory and recognition run away from him, Cee-Lo Green preferred to be honest with the audience and said that his main goal was releasing a best-selling record, while ideas, loyalty to traditions and things like these were pushed far aside. Indeed, deeply fond of pure rapping in the past, Cee-Lo Green went decisively to singing as it is. The Lady Killer is a nostalgia inflated soul record to please the hearts of the young and the old equally. Cee-Lo Green’s voice is good enough to turn songs with not very nice tunes into catchy numbers. There are not too many true hits here, but the record’s best attraction is the impression it produces as a whole work. The Lady Killer may prove a beginning of a new stage in Cee-Lo Green’s solo career that deserves to be something bigger than it was in the past.