My new favorite song is by Cee-Lo Green. It's an album track from his new CD, The Lady Killer. Produced with Fraser T. Smith, Wildflower mainlines JOY. Dig it...
Factoids: Cee Lo and I grew up in the same place: Atlanta GA. Also home to @arjanwrites and l'il Janelle Monae, among many others... And Fraser T Smith, the song's producer, was Darren Hayes's guitar teacher when he first moved to London.
Cee-Lo just gave an interview to The Guardian and he says this:
Factoids: Cee Lo and I grew up in the same place: Atlanta GA. Also home to @arjanwrites and l'il Janelle Monae, among many others... And Fraser T Smith, the song's producer, was Darren Hayes's guitar teacher when he first moved to London.
Cee-Lo just gave an interview to The Guardian and he says this:
So many of the bands that influenced me growing up were English, even if I didn't realise it. English pop ruled the world in the 80s! A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Duran Duran… My sister bought me the 12-inch of "The Look of Love" by ABC and I loved that. I never looked at music in terms of black and white, just in terms of quality... I remember thinking, when I saw the singer from ABC wearing his gold suit: "This is very stylish." I'd wear a gold suit today if I could get one made. Hopefully, if someone like Tony [Hadley] from Spandau Ballet sees me looking stylish, they'll recognise it comes from them.I read about him and feel like I could talk to him for hours. LOVE HIM.
I just bought this album, and "Wildflower" is one of the high points (other than FU). I'm really digging "Bright Lights Big City"--like an amazing 80's R&B sister to Van Halen's "Jump" with those synths! "Bodies" is also an interesting tale of murder...
While I loved the Gnarls Barkley albums, I thought the experimentation sometimes kept Cee Lo from going full on world takeover ("Crazy" was HUGE, yes, but really the only song that was). Maybe he can solidify his status a bit more with this excellent album.
The reviews have been a bit muted, but I absolutely love this disc from start to finish, and it's a contender for my album of the year. Funny thing, though...it just seems to fit my current mood, which may be creating a bit of a bias.