Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine [Vinyl]

Cee-Lo Green | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (March 2, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Arista
• ASIN: B00014G662
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,833 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. Soul Machine

3. The Art of Noise

4. Living Again

5. I'll Be Around

6. The One

7. My Kind of People

8. Childz Play

9. I Am Selling Soul

10. All Day Love Affair

11. Evening News

12. Scrap Metal

13. Glockapella

14. When We Were Friends

15. Sometimes

16. Let's Stay Together

17. Die Trying

18. What Don't You Do? (Outro)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just short of the definitive statement he's capable of..., March 4, 2004

By 

souldrummer (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (Audio CD)

I dig Cee Lo and where his essence lies. Rap is maturing and its artists, its prophets can start building on the foundation that has been laid and take time out to say something, love something, and challenge people to listen to some genre bending talents. Cee-Lo is clearly inspired by soul music and gospel music and he aims to deliver a message. He's a little quirky as a singer; Terrence Trent D'arby with a fuller tone and a lisp who usually hits his note but occasionally misses it. On the whole I find the vocals really convincing. There are some beautiful soul tunes on this album; you can't be a soul machine without one, I suppose. I especially dig "All Day Love Affair" and "Die Trying" as illustrations of Cee Lo soulsinger. "Live Again" is a prophetic challenge with its "are you sure your really living" hook.

Cee-Lo's got a more party side to this album that could get him some more radio play this time out. One of the tracks, "My Kind of People" is based on Musical Youth's lone hit "Pass the Dutchie" and could get some club action.

Jazz heads will dig Russell Gunn's work on the album. Russell Gunn provides backup horns on some of the tracks. "Art of Noise" is a nice jam that benefits from Gunn's stuff. Like Roy Hargrove's production assistance on a lot of Dangelo/Roots/Soulquarians/Common/Badu stuff, Cee-Lo gets some added sophistication by having a jazz head helping out with production. Most of the charts are pretty tight and there are some solid beats on the album.

So why only four stars? I really want to Cee-Lo just lose the battle rap/go for street cred stuff. "Evening Comes" begins a two or three song cycle where Cee-Lo's battle rapping and challenging the haters. Some of its amusing, but its a little self contradictory. Cee Lo seems fond of orbs. There's a mellow green orb on the cover of his last album and it jives with his spiritually relevant raps. Turning up the heat to full wattage with star power and battle rapping momentarily blinds you from his essence. I can't take tracks like "Scrap Metal" seriously. Lose Big Rube and just shine with your big ole beautiful self Cee Lo! Most of the other guests don't fully get in the way but I don't think they add much for me. We don't often get Ludacris rapping in 12/8 time and he adds his typical craziness. Cee Lo sings circles around Pharell in their collaboration on the next to last full track of the album.

I will say for all you Outkast fans that this is a great next purchase if you dig Speakerboxx/Love Below. In some ways Cee Lo's disc may be more consistent than Andre's even if it's not going to get all the chart success.

This is good, this is strong, and this is one way in black music the artist/entertainer can find hope in the market. I encourage you to dig the album.

Just know that I think Cee Lo can dig even deeper when he combines the honesty and "screw what people want from me" attitude of his first album with the better songwriting, and tighter hooks of this album. I hope he finds some encouragement and strength to sustain an even riskier effort in the future.

The man's got talent and he deserves your suport.

4.5 stars

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars yeah that's right, March 2, 2004

By 

HiBall13 (Middletown, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (Audio CD)

this album is F-ing nasty. it doesn't have as much of the raw dirty south edge as perfect imperfections but its got the slicker soulful sound happening. people said he would do less of his singing stuff on this album, but its still in there. honestly, its a ton of original unique music. probably ends up being something like a cross between the love below and speakerboxxx. the track with luda is sick, the primo track is excellent as well. i HIGHLY recommend this disc. don't expect the last one, but its still some of the most original music out there. im usually slow to warm up to an album but i've only had it for about 12 hours and i already can't take it off repeat.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What?????!!!!!!!!!, January 16, 2006

By 

a. bravenwood "braven" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (Audio CD)

Cee-lo is BY FAR one of raps greatest lyricists. Shawdy is a genuine artist. His singing is OK. His words are nuthin but poetry, very potent; provocative and profound, also appealing to the conscious. He's a grown man in a boy's game. Frida Kahlo caliber, feel? Intimately artsy, what a album is SUPPOSED to be. Even manages to creatively make radio transition without dillution. A definate musical artifact amoungst the force-fed garbage on the radio, evidence of the last days-they literally hypnotise us with it, this album is a definate option, Artistry at its best, with or without garbage to compare it to, I feel if musicians were artists again, this album would STILL stand alone. Soul piercing. Peace.