After nearly five years of trying, Cee Lo Green has finally stumbled upon the perfect follow-up to Gnarls Barkley‘s pop smash, “Crazy”-and it’s impossible to play on the radio. “Fuck You,” the first taste from Green’s forthcoming “The Ladykiller,” could’ve been an intense lament. Instead, it’s as sunny as a ’60s Motown hit and as expletive-laden as an early Eminem song, a combination that fits the singer’s sky-high vocals and offbeat sense of humor well. Over a twinkling piano line, bumping bass and steady percussion, Green shakes off a failed relationship with a gold digger by packing the simple pleasures of old-school soul music into tongue-in-cheek verses and a suitably soaring chorus. Even if its excessive swearing means the mainstream will only hear the song’s far inferior radio edit, “Forget You,” the original’s 3 million YouTube hits in a week’s time prove that “Fuck You” is too irresistible to be denied.
