Cover: Cee Lo, "No One's Gonna Love You"

Amidst all the hype of a hit single like "Fuck You," the fact disappears that Cee Lo Green is a talented-ass guy with a good ear for composition and a great voice. Years after Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" has stopped appearing on the radio (and nobody thinks much about it anymore) you might remember he also covered Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone," a tune which itself owed to blues of yore (quoting Willie Dixon.) "Fuck You" is a great genre experiment, a revived motown sound that took on a life of its own as a 2010 smash. No matter what my opinion of his cuss-laden hit single and its radio-friendly censored version (which I hear every three to four hours at work) I'm more interested in the fact that this exists:



The Band of Horses original is very good, but a strong cover can turn a great tune into a classic. It works by ensuring that all the feel of the original is retained even in its altered form. Whereas the BOH version is contemplative, Cee Lo's is demanding and pleading, sung with conviction rather than resignation. The result is a slightly different but significant take on the song. This sort of thing used to happen all the time, when artists like Joe Cocker could make great careers out of interpreting. It doesn't happen as much anymore, because we tend to put "interpreters" down. But this dude, whether you like him or not, is no copycat. This is legit.

I don't think I'll be buying the album. I've got too many CD's lined up and there's sure to be more, so I doubt I'll get around to it. But this is very reassuring.