Dungeon Family affiliate Cee Lo’s solo venture, Cee-Lo Green and his Perfect Imperfections is a delicious barrage of contradictions. From doing work with Outkast, Goodie Mob, and the Dungeon Family, Cee-Lo has acquired more than enough experience and credibility to venture out on his own, and he states his independence boldly, rapping, writing, and producing all the tracks on the album. There are hardly any guest artists, just one posse cut, and a cameo by John Popper (of Blues Traveler), showing us he doesn’t need to rely on the strengths of his affiliates (including Outkast).

Perfect Imperfections is definitely the most deliciously defiant Hip-Hop album of the year. Cee-Lo manages to be ahead of his time using old styles of music. Gospel, Funk, Jazz, even a bit of Country are thrown in the mix. “Country Love” builds a banjo and harmonica solo (maybe the first in Hip-Hop since “Rosa Parks”) over a funk bass, but somehow it all makes sense. Heavy bass and horns are a recurrent theme, which gives the songs the bounce of Hip-Hop and the swing of, well, Swing.

As for the lyrics, there are some compelling complexities. Cee-Lo can write a scorching soul-searcher, an uplifting spiritual piece, and he can write a song about freakin’. The album’s furiously flamboyant “Closet Freak” actually reveals more about Cee-Lo’s work than you might think. Cee-Lo is silliness with substance, or maybe the other way around.. . His music is serious, but it’s also fun. You can grind to it, and you can think about it. The wonderful thing is that he doesn’t wait for a new song, or even a new verse to switch attitudes. On “Closet Freak” he goes far beyond Hip-Hop, and then snaps back into its faults with minimal whiplash in just one couplet. Those who pay attention to lyrics (bonus points for printing them in the jacket) will be stunned by “when people haven’t been where you been and they say you’re still going too far / or when you with your girl and pull over and f-k somethin’ in the back of the car. . . I’m a freak!” A nice thing is that those who don’t pay attention can still feel the attitude of the song in the beat and delivery. It’s effective on every level.

For all its perfect imperfections, the album does have its imperfect perfections (or something like that). Cee-Lo faces a similar challenge that Q-Tip did with his solo joint, Amplified. Both of their voices are, shall we say, unique, and this sounds great among the sounds of a crew, but the novelty tends to wear off . Lo’s raspy gurgle sounds distinctive, but it loses its appeal two thirds of the way through the album. This could have been easily remedied with a few more guests to break up the static. It’s clear he’s making a statement, but 16 bars from any member of Dungeon Family would push the limits of sublime subliminal saliency. Overall, the album sounds like a circus looks. There’s far too much excitement going on to pay attention to any one thing, so the best thing to do is just sit back and enjoy the glittering chaos.