Cee Lo's Magic Moment Lives Up to Its Title

I know next to nothing about Cee Lo Green aside from the fact that he released a foul-mouthed but oh-so-catchy kiss-off song that I’ve heard several times with altered lyrics. Considering the bleep-worthiness of this song, I wasn’t at all sure I’d like his Christmas album, Cee Lo’s Magic Moment, so it ended up being one of the sweetest musical surprises of the season for me.

Cee Lo has a deep, soulful voice that makes him well suited to R and B-style Christmas classics such as What Christmas Means to Me, first recorded by Stevie Wonder; Donny Hathaway’s funky This Christmas; and Charles Brown’s soul-stirring Please Come Home for Christmas. There’s a sense of passion and sincerity in his delivery that really grabbed me and held my attention.

Songs of romance are plentiful here, and he fares similarly well with those. His rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is peppy and includes some vocal acrobatics, as does the duet Baby It’s Cold Outside; while it starts off fairly sedate, he and Christina Aguilera soon let their voices go wild as they sing over top of each other. Meanwhile, the brass-heavy Merry Christmas, Baby is a fun number that ties into the Christmas album of Rod Stewart, who guests here alongside Trombone Shorty.

The smooth but percussive Christmas Song is warmly relaxing, while The River is melancholy without being morose and his version of White Christmas is one of the bounciest I have heard. The rollicking keyboards are the real stars of Run Rudolph Run, but the vocals are great in a retro rock kind of way.

Silent Night has a truly reverent Gospel feel to it, with faint choral backing to a gorgeous lead vocal. After I listened to the album, I watched the video, which features a lanky Santa and several scantily clad women in red and white running in slow motion; the bizarre spectacle certainly detracts from the beauty of the music and the sense of sincerity, which is a shame. Thankfully, there is no such video for Mary, Did You Know?, which has rich instrumental backing and an even more soulful sound to it.

Cee Lo’s two most unusual tracks still are not wholly original, but they are a lot of fun. He teams up with the brilliant Straight No Chaser for a hugely entertaining rendition of You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch that is loaded with harmonic surprises. His recitation of several lengthy passages from the book adds to the enjoyment as well.

All I Need Is Love is weird and wacky, drawing from the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love with a beat straight out of Mambo No. 5 and a strong sampling of Muppet classic Mahna Mahna. Several Muppets have a solo line or two, so picking them out is a lot of fun, even though it takes a few listens to catch everything. Make sure to listen through to the end to allow perpetually cranky Statler and Waldorf their opportunity to weigh in, even though their assessment naturally differs from mine. This isn’t an easy track to sing along with, but it’s loads of fun, and it also has some nice sentiments about the joy of togetherness this time of year.

I’m still not entirely sure where Cee Lo is coming from, especially after seeing that Silent Night video, but his album is a joy to listen to nonetheless. If you’re into soulful renditions of Christmas classics, you should give it a spin too.