Finally, after an 18-year gap since their last collaboration in the heady days of the hit Crazy, with the St Elsewhere and The Odd Couple LPs a third and supposedly final album from fabulous singer CeeLo Green and producer and musician aka Brian Burton with a mix of soaring soul, hip-hop, pop and RnB with songs filled with vivid lyrical memories and strong, emotive melodies. With the title, the songs are very much rooted in their home city of Atlanta, and Green’s lyrics are dotted with vivid images and memories, in particular the single Pictures, which makes references Wayne Williams, the man most closely associated with the Atlanta Child Murders. The lead single Pictures is about Green as a child leaving for school but also leaving school early and travelling on the Marta train in the city with all the sights that it brings: “Into the sky I stare, say the same ol' prayer / But Wayne is still out there somewhere / Look both ways before crossing, no talking to strangers / A shoestring from my sneakers held my house key … Looks like motion pictures / Staring out the window of the MARTA train / On an adventure / Then back home again.” Overall that classy sound returns, with impeccable production from Burton that incomparable Green voice with a fusion of 60s pop and 70s soul and gospel with other standouts including I Amnesia (“And all of a sudden I remember”) the funky Line Dance, the handclap-catchy Turn Your Heart Back On, the slower, Procul Harem-style with gospel, deeper vocal of Let Me Be, the eclectic angry but also moving hip hop of Boy Genius or The Be Be King, the beautiful, soulful, slow, melancholy piano number Sorry, to the final disco funk of Accept It. It’s been a big gap, but why so long? In the interim Green has released four other solo albums and has had some legal and personal difficulties, while Burton has worked prolifically on some of the most innovative collaborations this millennium, but they remain a fabulous partnership even if this is in passing, and for the final time. Out on TenThousand Projects.
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