“I think the Muppets hit a new low.” “Yeah, and his first name’s Cee!” In the hierarchy of Statler and Waldorf’s cutting put-downs it’s more of a turkey than a Christmas cracker, but Cee Lo’s Magic Moment was never supposed to be subtle. The album’s cover art features the soul star, clad in a pink fur coat, playing Santa in a convertible Rolls Royce driven by reindeer and drawn by three white horses.
That the star has chosen a bombastic pop number based on the Muppets [3]’ famous “mah na mah na” refrain as the lead single for his Christmas album is hardly a surprise. And yet, as Christmas albums go, Cee Lo’s Magic Moment has more to recommend it than mere novelty. Green is possessed of a magnificently rich soul voice straight out of the 1950s, which makes it a perfect fit for the adeptly curated - if at times eccentric - collection of festive standards picked out for reworking. In his hands, Irving Berlin’s dreary “White Christmas [4]” turns celebratory and “Please Come Home For Christmas” drops the plaintiveness to go full-on torch song. He manages to camp up, full-on pantomime villain style, on “You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch”, on the same album as a lovely, reverent “Silent Night”. Even his cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” is perfectly serviceable, and I’m as huge a fan of the original as you are.
It’s not a perfect album by any stretch of the imagination: it’s hard not to make “Baby It’s Cold Outside [5]” sound anything other than dubious, and the sheer length of Green’s duet with Christina Aguilera [6] makes this a particularly creepy addition to the canon; and there are a couple of phoned-in performances on less than inspiring material like “The Christmas Song”. Regardless, this is one holiday album that could be worth a revisit next year: it’s been said many times, many ways, but never quite like this.
Take a listen to Cee Lo and the Muppets below
Links
[1] https://theartsdesk.com/users/lisa-marie-ferla
[2] https://www.addtoany.com/share_save
[3] http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/muppets
[4] http://www.theartsdesk.com/film/12-films-christmas-white-christmas
[5] http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-cerys-matthews-baby-its-cold-outside
[6] http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-christina-aguilera-lotus
[7] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ceelos-Magic-Moment-Ceelo-Green/dp/B00911LA76/ref=sr_1_1
[8] https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/ceelos-magic-moment/id564392095
[9] https://theartsdesk.com/node/60556/view
[10] https://theartsdesk.com/node/60572/view
[11] https://theartsdesk.com/node/57776/view
[12] https://theartsdesk.com/node/60558/view
[13] https://theartsdesk.com/new-music
[14] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/christmas
[15] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/soul-music
[16] https://theartsdesk.com/topics/cds/dvds