Following the worldwide, unparalleled critical acclaim for 2006's St. Elsewhere and their record breaking hit "Crazy," Gnarls Barkley is set to release their sophomore album this April. Titled, The Odd Couple, the album features 13 tracks of new material from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green. The first single, "Run" has been met with rave reviews, and The Odd Couple is without question one of the most anticipated releases of 2008.
With its cinematic origins The Odd Couple is the natural title for the second album by a pair who seem to spend as much time in wardrobe as the studio and whose recordings are often compared to film scores. Their greatest hit, 2006's "Crazy" was even built around a chunk of a spaghetti western soundtrack. Yet after the success of 2006's excellent St Elsewhere, the collaboration of singer Thomas "Cee-Lo Green" Callaway and producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton has become a permanent institution. The Odd Couple certainly lives up to expectations, and though there is no obvious smash to match "Crazy", it's a smoother affair than their often hyperactive debut, the unsettling "Open Book" aside. Highlights include the excellent, agitated lead-off single "Run", a smart slice of off kilter pop-soul, and its most obvious successor, the instant classic "Surprise". "Going On" manages to weld an eighties pomp-pop introduction to a surprisingly vulnerable Cee-Lo performance while the plaintive, bluesy "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" catches him at his most soulful. "Whatever" is a cute, rather bratty sixties pastiche halfway to Britpop (though no Englishman ever used the expression "y'all") while the warped bubblegum pop of "Blind Mary" and the more traditionally ominous "Would Be Killer" are opposite sides of the same twisted coin. Informed by rap and dance, but occupying their own unique genre, Gnarls Barkley continue to soundtrack the movie that, so far, exists only in their heads. --Steve Jelbert
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Review: 4.0 / 5.0
"Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple 7/10"
"Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple"
"Dissappointed"
"kitschy sheds its petals"
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple 7/10:
The Odd Couple is an appropriate name for Gnarls Barkley's latest album; the collaboration between mash-up extraordinaire Danger Mouse and eccentric rapper Cee-Lo Green is anything but normal. The Odd Couple continues St. Elsewhere's Grammy-winning formula of horror-cinema beats and off-the-wall rhymes, but not much else. Gnarls Barkley has never been a duo that shied away from taking chances, and The Odd Couple is no exception. Cee-Lo sounds like a fiery gospel singer on "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)"... more info
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple:
The Odd Couple (2008, Warner Bros.) Gnarls Barkley's second studio album. ***1/2 In 2006, Gnarls Barkley released St. Elsewhere, an album so fresh and so needed that everyone held their breath for a follow-up album, hoping that the collaboration between singer Cee-Lo and producer "Danger Mouse" Burton was not a one-off affair. Thankfully, 2008 delivered the goods. The Odd Couple is not as pleasing as St. Elsewhere, with one too many songs that don't quite live up to what is expected of these two.... more info
Dissappointed:
I saw these guys on SNL and was blown away. I must have been pretty loaded at the time because the CD sure doesn't come across with the same energy.
kitschy sheds its petals:
I liked Gnarls better back when he used to sell me copies of "Grit" magazine and cut my hoop nets when I was looking toward the fire he'd set in my wastebasket. Now, he's whooping it up like a sitcom diversion, jibberjabbing like a simian slutdive bellhop. I like mockingbirds in a guilty way when they don't know I'm awake, spying on their mating chatter. But this, this by nature is grandiose, cellular, predisposed, grating. And I'm having a major case of deja vu. Does it even matter anymore? We're an... more info
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