You'll go 'Crazy' over Cee Lo's new album

Only one thing characterizes Cee Lo Green’s career: variety. He started out in rap outfit Goodie Mob, helping to define the regional identity of southern rap in the mid-1990s. He then launched into a muddle of strange solo projects, before taking the Top 40 charts by storm as half of Gnarls Barkley with “Crazy.” Now he returns once again in a new incarnation: “The Lady Killer.”

Although this album marks a distinct new period in Cee Lo’s discography, it draws upon the strengths that have made him such a musical force over the years. First off, there’s the voice. There’s just something magnetic about Cee Lo’s instantly recognizable vocals, whether he is rapping or singing — and no one knows that better than Cee Lo himself. On “The Lady Killer,” he croons, he struts, he seduces, he scorns — and no matter what the tone is, Cee Lo’s singing worms its way into your mind and invites you to sing along.

“The Lady Killer” also brims with the infectious energy that Cee Lo has brought to every one of his musical projects. The bass never lets up, and every song doesn’t so much invite you to nod your head as demand it.

This energy reaches its climax in the album’s smash hit and clear standout, “Fuck You.” The song boasts a foot-tapping rhythm with choral arrangements, an old-school R&B drum line, organs and a bouncing guitar — not to mention unbelievably catchy lyrics about sticking it to your ex and your ex’s new beau.

Indeed, the lyrical content of “The Lady Killer” is just as developed as the musicality, with Cee Lo delving into almost every manifestation of love and sexuality. “Bright Lights, Bigger City,” is an ode to the spontaneity of the weekend, placing Cee Lo in the role of weekend womanizer. Much of the album builds on the ideas of flings and sexual prowess. On “Wildflower,” he plays a smooth-talker wooing a mysterious lover. On “Love Gun,” he swaggers through a give and take with guest vocalist Lauren Bennett in a track overflowing with braggadocio.

The emotions expressed get more complicated as the album develops, however. In “Bodies,” Cee Lo has an encounter that is vaguely, if not overtly, criminal. He explores the darker side of his desires over sinister and heavy production punctuated by whispered exchanges of passion. The song exudes his old Goodie Mob menace.

Later, the album presents a whole new look on love when “I Want You” declares, “This is it, my God!” Cee Lo swears off short, anonymous encounters in favor of a long-term relationship with his one true love. But the album changes back again with “Cry Baby,” in which Cee Lo apologizes for making an ex cry while simultaneously mocking her reaction to being dumped.

This depth of emotion continues to build, eventually culminating in “No One’s Going to Love You Now,” a cover of a Band of Horses song that melds Cee Lo’s hip-hop sensibilities and the album’s upbeat tempo with the melancholy tone of the original. He sings his heart out on the track, crafting a truly reverent and passionate portrait of a collapsing relationship.

Don’t be fooled by this emotional heaviness at the end of the album, though; “The Lady Killer” is not a melancholy record. It’s bookended by an intro and an ending built around a ’60s spy groove, and this goofiness, inherent in much of Cee Lo’s music, pervades the album. Even when the record addresses dark themes, the mood is kept light by upbeat drumming, joyously wailing horns, choral arrangements and soaring strings.

The live instrumentation also lends “The Lady Killer” its old-school flair. Right from the start, the album embraces the classic R&B sound of the ’60s and ’70s. The choice to lend the record this vintage sound contributes greatly to its overall attitude: It’s an unabashedly bouncy record, and you’ll definitely want to bounce along with it.

4 Paws

Pros The inimitable Cee Lo Green belting out 14 rollicking, head-nod inducing tracks.