Soundtrack: (Expletive Deleted)
Does it count as the song of the summer if we can’t even print what it’s called?
Cee-Lo Green, the lead singer of Gnarls Barkley, released a soul-pop ballad on Youtube yesterday that you both can’t stop singing and, also, can’t sing in public. Anywhere. Therein lies the problem.
So how is this trusty ol’ newspaper website going to present this information to you?
Well, the walker-wielders at the Wall Street Journal have given it a shot.
“There’s no way around the vulgar phrase. Though it’s possible it could be bleeped or edited out, everyone who hears the song will fill in the blank as Cee-Lo curses out a girl who left him for a richer man.”
It’s called “F--- You.” There, we said it. And we had to. Because it’s very, very good.
So good, in fact, that it’s going to make for a very well-paid producer at the Grammy’s, someone who will have his or her hand trained on the bleep button all night like a really vulgar game of Bop It. Because it’s going to win a Grammy or two.
Along with an EMBOLDENED EXPLICIT LYRICS, NOT SAFE FOR WORK/CHILDREN/BABY ANGELS WARNING, here’s the video:
(Today's Soundtrack: Cee-Lo Green - F--- You)
Sure, part of the appeal here is that the song is called “F--- You,” anyway. But most of the appeal is the hook. No song with that many “oohs” in the chorus can possibly be bad.
Plus, the public outcry this will spark if it’s played on the radio with any regularity will be mostly ironic. The knock on modern R&B is that it’s usually grossly, explicitly sexual, sometimes misogynistic and generally reliant on the give-and-take nature of the sexual power dynamic.
Not so for “F’ You.” Its lyrics are those eminently relatable, rush-to-judgment observations of the freshly dumped. If anything, it’s crazily advanced, promoting relationships that have nothing to do with money (“I guess the change in my pocket wasn’t enough,” Green croons) -- ones that are based on the absence of power rather than the constant drive for the accrual of it. Just because it’s called “F--- You” doesn’t mean Cee-Lo wants you to actually take his advice.
Wait, what am I doing? Just listen to this thing. It’ll never leave your head. It’s the happiest three minutes and 45 seconds of getting cussed out that you’ll ever experience.
The only question that remains is this: Does it still count as the song of the summer if it comes out on August 20th?
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