Cee Lo Green: Anyway

There’s something about the way Cee Lo Green’s voice sits in a mix—it’s almost too much, too present, demanding you hear every flex and every hurt at once. You listen to him and you get the sense that he doesn’t care if you’re ready for it. He’ll sing over a Danger Mouse production or some soulful thing that should collapse under that much personality, but it doesn’t, because the voice is doing something honest underneath all the showboating. The title says it all, I think. Anyway. Not defiant, exactly. Just the sound of someone who’s made peace with the fact that he’s going to be himself regardless of the circumstance, and yeah, maybe nobody asked for it, but here it is. That’s not nothing.