About a third of CeeLo Green’s 14-track Christmas album is pretty solid. This includes consideration that CeeLo’s overall approach to singing tends toward the heavy-handed, an attribute absolutely compatible with Christmas records. But the most unnatural elements — the forced styles outside his comfort zone, clunky duets, uninspired excesses — are what ultimately causes “CeeLo’s Magic Moment” to stumblebum around the season with only a few perfectly packaged gifts.
Green positively delights over the three-song stretch of tracks 3 to 5, with “This Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” and “White Christmas,” all the Motown sheen over top Green’s smiling consonants and midtempo bops. The mood on either side there is ruined, first, by his duel with powerhouse (and “The Voice” cohort) Christina Aguilera on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” a tune that turned out less conversational than it is two horny people yelling at each other (“YOU’VE REALLY BEEN NICE!…” “I’M THRILLED WHEN YOU TOUCH MY HAIR!”). Green’s standing endorsement from the Muppets rallies on hot mess “All I Need Is Love,” as it relies whole-cloth on “Mahna Mahna” with sprinkles of the word “Santa,” the chosen ad lib over “baby.”
“Magic Moment” is inflicted with Atlantic labelmates Straight No Chaser on three tracks, especially on novelty “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” as it’s apparent the a capella crew’s 15 minutes has extended into four years. Rod Stewart shows up on R&B classic “Merry Christmas Baby” to easy-listening effect, but it and the plain cover of Joni Mitchell’s tender “River” lacks the color and heart that gospel choir-backed tracks like “Mary Did You Know.” “All I Want for Christmas” and “Silent Night” dynamically are written in two different ways, but ultimately burst with the same bombast and artless backing from the same arranger’s desk.
Select songs from “Magic Moment” would make such a highly successful EP in many ways, but like most EPs, it wouldn’t sell the way a full-length set would, so Green bears what he can here with his wonderful voice. But ain’t it just like Christmas, to over-extend?