Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine

This was hella fun. Hard not to smile and shimmy when a Cee-Lo Green album is playing. Felt like it dropped off in quality on the back half of the album, and I’m curious to see if this is really his best album (I don’t trust this list when it comes to the early 00s). But I had a great time, and that’s all that matters.

wat is mis met mensen dit album is echt zwaar bussin eigenlijk

Gotta have more soul in my life Favorite song:Sometimes

I feel kind of guilty for enjoying this album as much as I did. First and foremost, Cee-Lo Green is not a good guy. He’s said some terrible things about women, and done worse things to them. Neither is Timbaland a good person. His shitty takes on AI lately have ruined his legacy in my eyes. Ludacris and Pharrell, I’m not so sure. But god dammit, this album is FUN. And if I’m rating this on how much I personally enjoyed it, I would have to go ahead and give this one a 4. Does it lessen the experience knowing what I know about Green?? Maybe a little bit, yeah. But I was able to vibe with this the entire day and I honestly kind of loved it. Do I think this album should be 35 plus minutes shorter?? Also yes. Anything past the half way mark just starts to feel a little repetitive. Cee-Lo has another very unique voice that evidently a lot of people on the site don’t like, and I get that. Ironically, I’m more familiar with him as an actor than as a singer. When I was a kid, he was on Adult Swim a lot, and that’s pretty much the only thing I knew him from, besides his song “Fuck You”, which is not present on this album. So I’m actually very familiar with his weird voice, and I even rather like it a lot. Something else I’ve already mentioned are the features. Even if you don’t like his voice, ironically 2 of the 3 songs I added to my library are songs with features. The one that doesn’t that I liked is “Living Again”, which is my third favorite song on the album. Second place goes to “The Art Of Noise (feat. Pharrell)”, and first goes to my boy Luda with “Childz Play (feat. Ludacris)”. And listen, I may be a bit, or more than a bit, biased here. I grew up listening to a ton of Luda. I didn’t know he was going to show up here in any capacity, but even though I’ve never heard any of this album before, it has a weird nostalgia to it that I love, and the Luda song exemplifies this more than anything else. Every time Luda showed up on a track I got so happy as a kid, and clearly that hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s like checking in with an old friend. But I promise he’s not the only reason I loved this album. The flow, the beats, and the lyricism are all just fun. I grew up in the 2000’s and I think albums like this are just always going to appeal to me. I don’t know man. It almost sounds like it belongs in a PS2 game. I can imagine myself laying back, playing some Tekken, and rocking out to this. This album makes me nostalgic, and I’ve never heard it before. And for that, I’ve got to give it a 4. I just have to.

The terrible cover art doesn't help. Some of the arrangements are a little irritating, but there's some decent grooves in here.

Meh. Didn't care for this so much. Didn't hate it. But I didn't really like it at all.

Bland beige pop-soul-hip hop. No idea why this is in the book.

No

Fine to meh, I guess. A slog at times. Way too long. This list has spoiled us recently with great albums that are only 30ish minutes long. Now that we’re well into the 2020s, I’ve been becoming more aware as a general concept and look and feel of the decade of the aughts or ‘00s or Y2K or 2000s or whatever that decade is called. Some things from the aughts have aged well, some have not. This album has not for me.

Eh, he’s kind of a creep and this was essentially fine. Not much to recommend but nothing truly objectionable.

You can just tell this guy is a creep by listening to this.

Не особо понимаю такой поп-рэп

Not my thing

fun!

Lord, help me, I don't even like good hip hop.

Имитация легенд

Just not for me. Moving on…

More like suck machine

I really didn’t want to like this because Cee-Lo seems like kind of a douche personality and I have written him off for that in the past. While the voice is sometimes still obnoxious in this album it was still catchy and creative and I will be back to listen again. A pleasant surprise.

Life is too short to listen to this fucking shite.

I'll never understand how he has become so famous. Can't be a one star because of the beats

Really not a fan of his vocals or his general musical style. And definitely didn’t like most of the collabs on this album.

muuuy buen álbum, no lo conocía. Me gustó la vibe. Este es el mismo loco de la canción Crazy.

- super hip-hop, valtozatos, atgondolt, szep melodiak, okes szovegek, kollabok

*Copy and paste the same note that I keep making about artists I disagree with personally, I am rating them based on the album because if I rated them based on them... this would be a list of nonsense* Yeah, I mean anything Pharrell touches is pretty great to begin with. And I actually like Cee Lo's voice which I know is not the popular opinion. I think part of it may just be the absolute timing of his presence in my life. 2004 is like, when I was first able to have memories. The only thing I would say is that this album does probably count as false marketing. Not sure what part of this is giving "soul machine" but what do I know. Season: True Spring Favorite Song: I’ll Be Around

i really liked the start of this album, but the further we got into it the less excited I was to hear the next song. and While I think Cee Lo has a particular unique voice, that I don't mind in most cases, it made the end of the album harder to get through than necessary.

I liked it. Funky and Soulful beats. Odd voice.

Is it weird to call yourself the 'soul machine' and then rap for like half the album? It's not bad....but it's not really good. See the inclusion on this list before our multitude of Elvis Costello or Dexy's Midnight Runners albums, but nothing special here.

I honestly knew nothing of Cee-Lo other than the obvious so I was very pleasantly surprised by this album. It really is very creative and not just a mix of soul and hip-hop (as interesting as that alone might be); there are a lot of great ideas crowbarred into this 65 minute album, released in 2004, long before the hits. I don't know if any of his future music is of a similar ilk but I'm certainly interested to find out.

Annoying over-use of the N-word. Annoying personality whenever he talks. Annoyingly long album with a few decent tracks.

соул биты, выделяющийся вокал фарела скипал душевный, но без хитов слегка почувствовал его талант хороший альбом, первый трек сильно завысил ожидания переслушать можно 3.3

Genuinely what warrants this being in the book

Surpised. Very funky. Only knew one song ('I'll be Around') before listening. Felt cool whilst listening to it.

Some good. Some not so good

Oh dear. If you can't produce something of quality then increase the quantity presumably to compensate. Over one hour of awful listening.

I still have a few tracks left as I write these notes, but if I may be so bold, I think I have the gist of this album. Early 00s hip-hop production, for the most part, didn't really stand the test of time for me. There's stuff from that period that I liked back then that I can listen to with nostalgic-colored glasses, but new-to-me tunes from then feel really dated and almost like video game music (derogatory). Even the Neptunes' beats here just don't really hit, and CeeLo's enthusiasm can only save this so much. I will say that as the album went on, I grew a little more accustomed to the vibe and felt like it improved, and I did genuinely like "Living Again" and "The One", but overall I don't feel a need to ever listen to this again.

not sure i've listened to an entire cee-lo album before but have always liked the singles. i think it could be a bit shorter, but nothing seems out of place or self-indulgent here. really fine stuff all around

Friendly reminder : always look up at artists' biography at wikipedia. I just discovered that this man is a rapist, so I won't be listening to this album due to personnal convictions.

This is pre gnarls barkley and also pre the lady killer album which unfortunately are both vastly superior to this mess. Living again is a very good song but it sticks out like a sore thumb on this collection

Another mediocre rap album with the obligatory misogyny and glorification of gun violence. Just dull and too long. Despite the title, not actually that soulful. My personal rule that albums with lots of songs with ‘Feat.’ in the title are shite remains intact.

Bit generic 2000's hip-hop, even with Pharrell and Timbaland producing on some tracks (not to mention Cee-Lo's controversies.) 2.5 bumped up to 3.

I’m at a 1.5 that I’ll bump up to a 2. What do you do when a man with absolutely no credibility to back up anything he says portrays himself as the most credible man in the world? Well, I guess you elect him president based on current events. In this case, CeeLo Green tries to call himself the soul machine. He is not the soul machine. I don’t know what the fuck he is, really. Is he sent from God? He’ll tell you he is. Is he sugar sweet & just wanting to smoke dope with the people? He’ll tell you he is. Is he gonna pull out the box cutter & shoot your baby mama in the stomach just to make sure there won’t be another bitch like you? He’ll tell you he can do that too. CeeLo Green is everything & nothing at once. He is apparently a man of several faces, all of which you can see in the reflections of his glasses in that album cover, along with his big ass face taking up 70% of the whole thing. He is a man who needs a cavalcade of producers far more talented than him with a set of samples & interpolations from performers much more talented than him, at least on this album. I had little experience with CeeLo Green going into this other than his two biggest hits. I had hoped this would be good. CeeLo Green has shattered my faith in him. He’s hopping onto beats nobody’s ever conceived of before, bragging about himself in ways nobody’s ever said before or since, and if you truly listen to the batshit things he’s saying, there’s a track here where he claims it is the right of the people listening to this album to promote it since CeeLo is ordained by God himself as a messenger for peace & love. This is directly done behind a GoldenEye-sounding beat, following a track where he claims he’s for the Saturday morning kids, and 3 tracks before threatening to shoot a pregnant lady. To be fair, there’s a handful of tracks I did like, an unbelievable amount of mediocre tracks, & a handful of tracks where I would think of a million other artists who could perform the tracks with more credibility based on the lyrics. I don’t think CeeLo has shooters like that, I don’t think he’s thieving like that, nor do I think he’s actually gonna shoot a pregnant woman in the belly. CeeLo’s at his best here when he’s leaning into the actual ‘soul’ he tries to claim he’s the machine of, and even then, his songwriting has absolutely no charisma behind it. “All Day Love Affair” is the least romantic love song I think I’ve ever heard in my life. He literally just calls her a friend while talking about the most basic date ideas I’ve heard in my life. Stevie Wonder was freakier on Songs in the Key of Life, for fuck’s sake. Look, I could keep tearing into this album, and it deserves to be torn into, but I can’t spend another 5 paragraphs about CeeLo’s immense ego being carried by guest features & fun production. Don’t even get me started on “Childz Play”. Ultimately, there is little to no cohesion here whatsoever, and I don’t think CeeLo makes a single good case to keep calling himself the ‘soul machine’ by the end of it. I don’t think he can keep a consistent rap flow like that. It really is one of the worst albums on the list. That said, for as tempted as I am to give this a 1, I genuinely think there are some fun moments here, and if nothing else, the absolutely batshit unhinged flow of this album manages to keep it entertaining, no matter how abysmally bland it gets at times. Hence, a 1.5 that I will bump up to a 2. Barely. It’ll probably get that low someday. P.S.: Fuck him for those allegations & his take on rape too.

ok ba sympa, sans plus.

Pas d'inspi. Pas terrible.

Turhin räppi levy mitä olen hetkeen kuullut

2, only because of two songs of his not on the album

Sorry to be all woke and shit but unless you can point me to how this was in any way as big a deal as Gnarls and/or influential in the way other problematic artists are on this list, I don’t get why it’s still here.

I didn't need to hear this before I died

Fun sound, a little long though. Better CeeLo out there

Rating: 4.2/5 Short Review: This thing has personality for days. Soul, funk, hip-hop, gospel, weirdness, humor. Cee-Lo sounds like he’s having an absolute blast showing you everything he can do. It’s messy and overstuffed at times, but that’s also part of the charm. Favorite Track: I’ll Be Around

Cee Lo seems to be helping me with my rating here. (C-). Quite liked the first track and a couple more. His voice is a little irritating.

I really disliked his Gnarls Barkley Crazy song and not much into this either.

Perfectly listenable without being exciting - background stuff I’d never actively return to

it's interesting, but just saying you are the music, doesn't really make it so lol. That 9th track on this album is very encapsulating of what the entire album is...mostly self inflating and being wayyy too overly proud. It's interesting, but there are some songs on here when the fast rapping doesn't really say much? Also moments where the instrumentals just fall flat and feel dated. Also his mic fuckin clips at multiple places on here. I get that it was the peak of the loudness wars but it's distracting. His voice isn't the most amazing to me, and on multiple tracks on here he isn't doing much singing at all. Some of these more groovy, slow tempo, slow jam adjacent songs contain very "watching paint dry"/mundane lyrics like going to blockbuster to get a movie to watch. That line in particular felt like a subtle sponsored ad read. Insane. Yeah idk if this would fall under the YOU GOT TO LISTEN TO THIS category, so I'll be leaving it a 2 and wishing it well. I think it might even be a 1, but I don't think it fully warrants that. Idk. lol sike. I'm coming back to this after hearing the entire album and it's lyrically full of fucking tat and platitudes and fuckin empty words along with rough interpolations and even a moment where an uncredited interpolation of oasis' Live Forever can be found (on "let's stay together", with pharrell williams obviously the culprit of this) fuck off, it's a 1/5, somewhere around a 1.8-2.5/10. He keeps saying he's fucking great but he's so fucking mid. He's this and that and oh my gosh i'm supposed to just accept it as true lmaoooo 100 fuckouttaheres / 10

Ah, yes, Cee-Lo Green, that “Fuck You” song person. But it isn’t on this album; guess I’m going to have to go find it on YouTube. But anyway: this isn’t a profound album, but it’s a lot of fun. I think the musicians were enjoying themselves when they were recording this. Lots of fun beats - it never dragged, made for a fun record to listen to this afternoon.

kinda whatever Will I listen to again: 1%

FFS another fucking hip/hop shit shite album. Not a good start had to hurry the first track along a bit. 2 nd track had music and nearly a tune, vocal spoiled it. Why are these shitty albums so bloody long? It sounded like feat. Kevin Hart in Jumanji couldnt take it seriously after that. feat. Chazzie whoever that is cant sing at all. well its a first for me in that I listened to most of it. wasnt as bad as I was expecting still not great.

This doesn't sound especially like soul. But that doesn't mean it's a bad album. Not understanding the bad reviews, it was a bit of 00s fun. There's nothing to dislike here. Is it before-you-die-worthy? Probably not.

begon goed... maar mss had hij zich toch beter nog wat bezig gehouden met zijn zoon ipv een plaatje te maken

Boring and basic. Plus his voice isn’t my vibe at all

I like Cee-Lo and respect his talents and vocal abilities. Not a lot of people have listened to this album compared to his contemporaries from the same time. He's an eclectic guy and his music is the same. I think I missed why this is included in the must-hear-Top-1001. I didn't hear a song that made me want to listen to it a second time. The one 'hit' song, "I'll Be Around" (60M listens) was repetitive and average. Lots of guest stars, maybe too many to stay focused. Nothing compelling, no hits I'm aware of, is it influential? 2 stars, I had a hard time finishing each song.

You'd have to be crazy to like this.

09/26 Lame. Have no idea why this is on the list

When I hear people say "I don't like rap", I imagine they're thinking of half of the songs on this album. Tacky features, braggadocios bars with nothing to back them up. Reminds me of the a bar from Method Man's Tical yesterday: "And all you bitch-ass niggas in the industry/Your careers won't be lasting long". Cee Lo does ok with the slower soul songs, but overall the bark does not match the bite on this 70+ min album. 2/5

I mostly thought of CeeLo Green as a singer, so I was surprised to hear how much rapping there was on this album. Whether it's rapping, singing, or somewhere in between, he tends to favor a cadence that tries to fit a lot of words into a small space, and it sometimes strikes me as excessive. That is just a stylistic choice, but the production also sounds a bit dated. Some of the instrumentals are quite catchy, though. I liked "All Day Love Affair" a lot. I'm willing to give this album a three for several stronger songs and a some catchiness and infectious, soulful throughout.

Dang it, accidentally deleted my notes (thought I'd saved them, but I guess not). Anyway: thought I'd like this one more than I did. A few songs in, started thinking 3 might be as high as I could go; a few songs further in, and I began to suspect it might be a 2. Another one that probably went on a little too long for its own good. Clearly, he's a talented singer, but, for me, very few of these song were very interesting, or added up to much that would be memorable, or make me want to hear it again. As it went on, I found myself getting a little impatient for it to finish. Possibly another one that hasn't aged well? It's only about 20 years old, but I suspect that, perhaps, this might have sounded more cutting edge (and more interesting) when it came out (?). Anyway, a high 2 for me. A couple of (somewhat) better ones toward the end, but not enough to go up to a 3. Probably could have been a 3 if he'd cut the weakest third or so?

I like the variety of beats. Not surprised to see Timbaland and The Neptunes credited in the production, because the beats are fun and well-constructed. I enjoyed listening, but it's too long. I guess the Compact Disc enables albums to be too long?

I'm not a big hip-hop guy, but Cee-Lo could almost make me a convert. Extremely diverse and creative arrangements and lyrics, impressively fast and clever flow, and a lot of respect for what has gone before. I'm rarely in the mood to pop some hip-hop on, but if I am, this might be the album I go to. If nothing else, it's clear that he had fun making this. Shame he's apparently a sexual harasser...why can't we have nice things?

Is it just me or is every rap album too long

Vaca catch up

A wannabe super-musician and show-off – rubbish ‘music’. Not my cup of tea.

Cee Lo Green is… how to say? A guy with some really good songs, very soulful (also when it comes to his hip-hop tracks), with some great taste but a bit annoying voice, mostly when he raps. And, I would not say that he is necessarily bad, but this album has a bunch of songs that are nothing but forgettable. And others that are just… slightly nice. But nothing outstanding. Just some good ideas and a not that nice delivery. It is impressive to find that he has some really nice songs by judging the content of this album. I would never say he is great, but enjoyable. This album is not enjoyable. And that is the worst part of it. At least it is good, decent enough to make listening to it not a pain but, rather, a frustrating experience in which you would like to find something else. There is potential (at least to do better than this pretty insipid and generic thing) but it does not show at any moment in the full hour this album lasts.

No me interesa lo más minimo.

Is this the fuck you song guy?

A pleasurable if not all that memorable listening experience. The tracks go down easy, but they don't grab me. Let's Stay Together was a good track, but even that isn't one that really got into my brain.

Frist time listen.I need to listen to more, although not sure it would really change the rating.

3.5

Fine

Rap, Hip-Hop, aber Soul höre ich da nicht.

how are glockapella and all day love affair both on this album lol. mans got an ego

perfectly fine

I didn’t love this; musically it was fine but lyrically it was mostly worthless Playlist add: “Die Trying”

Better than expected, but not great. 3/5

Really nice mix of singing and rapping. Great warm grooves underneath.

es raro, como que hay de todo, godspell, medio rap, medio raro

The mixture of soul and hip hop is pretty good, but the egotism, violence and misogyny are very bad.

This album was okay, definitely not my favorite rap/hip hop album.

I simply do not understand the appeal of this music.

Tämä jäi täysin taustamusaksi salitreeniä tehdessä. Ei herättänyt oikein mitään fiiliksiä, tyhjänpäiväistä musaa itselleni. 2/5

It was an ok album. Didnt find it that interesting.

What's with 2000s hip-hop albums being so bloated and long? I ain't tryna hear all that. It's doing too much sonically that it feels scrambled. Like there's a "gangsta" song put in between all the other tracks about love or flexing as the "Soul Machine". It's like he's trying to be both a crooner and a hardcore rapper, most evident in his vocals and cadence.

how could i possibly be inconspicuous

Feels like Cee-Lo is between styles here, pretty common in his career I'd say, more just generic for the time rather than something that actually sticks out

OK, I pledge myself to hear every album on this album, but this one stretches my patient big time.. No, this is probably the worst album I heard during this list so far.

I don’t listen to or support rapists

Removed Album #41 (List: https://pastebin.com/cSThNiK9) From the Vault #41 (February 23, 2026) Another double whammy in my ongoing journey to rid this list of any and all hip-hop albums. Cee-Lo Green is a vaguely familiar name and I've seen this album while flicking through the 1001 Albums book, though I don't really know what to expect from him. Going by where hip-hop was at the time of this album's release, I'm expecting this album to be made up of jumpy, grandiose party tunes. Here goes. My divine intellect rewards me once again. I've been getting pretty good at these genre predictions though, to be fair, I do know that they're hip-hop albums from the outset. I wanted to like this album, but something about it pushed me away and caused my attention to flatline during the final quarter. That's right, we're bitching about bass again. These tracks have no depth or dynamism to them, which makes the songs feel increasingly hollow and empty as the album progresses. The general arrangements of these songs are kind of strange, too. I'm not an enthusiast of soul by any means, but I didn't feel much of a soul influence outside of the occasional vocal performance. The album is largely it's own thing, which isn't a bad thing per se. I appreciated the wide range of instruments and there were a few instrumentals that I liked - typically the ones which featured trumpets. I couldn't get into the vocals, however. The pitch and intonation of Cee-Lo's voice is not my speed. His guest artists aren't much better, though they manage to be inoffensive as slightly bog-standard hip-hop vocalists. Like all the hip-hop albums on this list, this album is also way too long and is bursting at the seams with tracks. Ultimately, this was listenable, but I wasn't too enthused by what I was hearing. So, why was this album removed? Let's take a look at the book entry. Included in the original 1001 lineup. This album had a surprisingly good run. It was removed from either the 2018 or 2021 revision of the book (I, sadly, don't have a scan of either). The entry for this album says that Cee-Lo was an extensive collaborator with OutKast. It was "...his definitive statement". Many producers, including Timbaland and The Neptunes. "...the public at large have yet to give him the respect - or the record sales - he deserves." Wikipedia says this album peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and was the 80th best-selling album of the year in the US, though it didn't chart internationally. The Wikipedia article also says that this album was warmly received by critics, but that's about it. I mean, yeah. This period of hip-hop is one of the most disposable and landfill-y eras in music, but as I've highlighted in some of my other hip-hop reviews, it's also the most accessible and listenable period to me as a non-fan of the genre. I sadly don't know of 1001 really good albums to replace the duds with, so I can't afford to be idealistic. This was a fine listen that was representative of the time it released in. For that reason I cosign this inclusion.

Extremely boring and forgettable. Couldn't tell you one good track off this

Just aight

Super overrated singer, awful person, and the music isn't even very soulful.

Tää oli mulle kuin helmiä sioille, ei oo mun musaa. Kuuntelin, mutta ei jäänyt mitään käteen.