Retro music can be a crapshoot, especially when it’s in the wrong hands. How do you walk the fine line between reverence and rehash, between classic and kitsch? For every She & Him, a group that turned out an excellent 60’s-style pop album this year, there’s an Amy Winehouse who would prefer to forsake quality music for the Keith Richards’ Fitness Regimen. Cee-Lo, who will likely and unfortunately be remembered more for “Fuck You” than for the majority of his work in Goodie Mob, Gnarls Barkley, or as a solo artist, had a great 2010. His stellar contribution to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, “What Part of Forever,” featured some of the best whistling this side of an Andrew Bird album and – more impressively – made me listen to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. The Lady Killer covers some serious musical territory over its 45-minute run-time. You get 50’s crooning on “Old Fashioned,” 60’s cool on the Bond-inspired “Love Gun,” a funky 80’s bass line on “Bright Lights, Bigger City” – not to mention a fantastic take on Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You.” All that and a voice more than worthy of the material he has the good taste to resurrect. Grade: B+
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