ARTIST: Gnarls Barkley
TITLE: The Odd Couple
WEB DEBUT: Mar. 4, 2008
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: About a month ahead of release date, the second Gnarls Barkley disc hit the Internet, albeit with mislabeled tracks (at least, the version I saw). Nonetheless, you have to feel for Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse a bit, living under the spectre of “Crazy,” one of the most memorable genre-busting singles in decades Sure, there were other singles from St. Elsewhere, but it’s difficult to listen to The Odd Couple without waiting for a perfect pop moment that never arrives. The disc is fine and throughly listenable, and Cee-Lo will likely always be one of pop music’s most interesting vocalists, but there’s not too much to hang your hat on. Danger Mouse’s production is more atmospheric than engaging at times, with lush keyboards floating in the distance and breakbeats that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Roni Size disc, and a number of tracks (like “Whatever”) seem to nod towards a skewed view of ’60s pop that never seems to catch on. But overall, there’s not much to rave or complain about; The Odd Couple is pretty good, but it will probably disappear somewhere into the back of my mind until its tracks start re-appearing in every commercial I see.
THE BEST TRACK: The temptation is there to say “Run,” but let’s go with “A Little Better,” which sounds a little like a lost “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”-era Temptations outtake, even in lyrical content. Mostly, it made me happy to hear Cee-Lo shout out “the friendly ghost,” and it’s nice to hear Casper get his props.
@sparkletone: I think it’s a legitimate take to wonder where that sort of spark is, however. Is it better to just bow out of the arms race for hooks and just make a deliberately difficult record to defy critics to say something? I like Dangermouse and Cee-Lo too, but upon further listens, this disc just seems to drag along in stories of personal turmoil and sort of familiarish re-creations of soul riffs. If they weren’t playing around with aspects of genres I really like, I doubt I enjoy the disc much at all.
@sparkletone: GASP! A decent sophmore offering? Surely you jest!
Remember ten years ago, when “sounds like Roni Size” was a compliment?
*sigh*
Am I the only one here who really, really *dislikes* all the Danger Mouse production I’ve heard over the years?
@Tenno: Beware! I like Neon Bible. And the second Franz Ferdinand album. And the second Strokes record.
I am weak or something.
@sparkletone: I like the second Junior Senior album more than the first. ^_^
@Dan Gibson:
People expecting St. Elsewhere 2 complete with monster smash single aren’t going to get what they’re expecting, and disappointment may ensue. That’s really all I’m trying to defend against.
My feelings at the moment run “good, but not OMG great, with only one real stinker.” I’m not bothered by the lack of a song that gives you the same giddy, this-is-gonna-be-huge feeling that Crazy gave off.
They didn’t phone it in to collect a paycheck, and I think this album is actually less strange than the first one, all things considered. So it kind of confounds the standard “difficult second album” narrative in a few respects.
I think Crazy was kind of a fluke, and am expecting lamentation over, rather than real discussion of, The Odd Couple lacking a Crazy to overshadow fair consideration of the actual content on its own terms in the same way that In Rainbows got kind of drowned out by the manner in which it was released.
Interesting discussion of where the Crazy spark went, if it was ever there to begin with, is definitely worthwhile, but I don’t think that’s quite what we’re going to get from most record reviews, or your average blogger, or blog commenter. That’s all I was getting at with the “Get ready to be sick of hearing…” comment.
@Tenno: Heh. Me too.
Is this a “preview” or a review?
@sparkletone: Good point.
I think there’s something to be investigated in the idea that “Crazy” was a possible one-off that sparked an album, and not a album cut, per se. Nonetheless, I miss that sort of sound and accessibility, but that might not have been their motivation when recording the albums to begin with. As it stands, I think I like Gnarls much more in theory, than practice.
@gorillavsmarykate:
Preview = reviewing the album after watching the video for Run on YouTube.
Review = reviewing the album after listening to a shitty leak.
Right?
@sparkletone: @gorillavsmarykate: You’re supposed to listen to the album?
@Dan Gibson: Only if you’re the guy doing the writing.
The editors are the ones who don’t have to listen to anything when they slap a rating on it and print the thing.
Okay, I’ll be the one to say that I thought St. Elsewhere was genius front to back.
But then again, I also think Perfect Imperfections and The Mouse and The Mask are two of the best albums of the decade, and just about every track Cee-Lo touches turns to gold for me - for example Trick Daddy’s Sugar.
I guess I’ll be the resident St. Elsewhere apologist over here. I loved more or less every moment of that album, for various reasons, but primarily because even as Cee-Lo was singing about the weirdest, darkest shit, there was a sense of joy about the whole proceedings that I found infectious. Of course, none of that would have mattered if Cee-Lo wasn’t one of the greatest male vocalists alive, or if Danger Mouse wasn’t an innovative producer with a killer ear for hooks, or if the songs themselves didn’t manage to be both catchy and lyrically sophisticated.
Disclaimer: I have both Cee-Lo solo albums, the Danger Mouse/Gemini collaboration album, the Grey Album, the first 2 Goodie Mob albums, and I got a Cee-Lo lyric from “Getting Grown” voted as the one put onto our high school senoir t-shirts, so I may be biased.
@92BuickLeSabre: I guess this is what happens when you take 10 minutes to write a comment. Glad to find a kindred spirit, though!
@blobby: Holy crap! It’s like our brains were exactly in the same spot at the same time. Even down to the structure and disclaimers.
Scaaaary!
Look, I’m just gonna say it… “Crazy” was the ONLY good song on that album. The rest of it was weird and unlistenable. There was a song about necrophilia!
If there’s no “Crazy” on the new album, that’s unfortunate.
@extracrispy: (Sorry, I seem to be making a habit this morning of following you up…)
I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I agree with the sentiment of what you’re saying. St. Elsewhere was a three-star album housing a five-star song (if I could give it six stars, I would), and there’s no getting around that. (I did like “Smiley Faces” and “Feng Shui,” but again: three stars.)
i didnt even think crazy was all that great - zzz
What should the real track names be?
Factoring in that this is a terrible rip (even once you’ve got properly labeled mp3s):
This one feels like it’ll hold up better as an album for me (rather than one fluke-of-an-instant-classic + a couple other easy single choices + some weird stuff). I like the darkish-60s vibe to it. Whatever is kind of a turd, really (the banality of the lyrics and the attempt at snotty-rawr-fuck-you attitude falls flat for me). But the rest is all pretty great.
But, I’m a sucker for Danger Mouse’s production (in general), as well as a sucker for Cee-lo’s voice.
I don’t really care that it’s missing a Crazy. I’d rather they not try (consciously, anyway) to match that song, than try and inevitably fail.
Overall, I think they’ll do just fine in terms of sales, etc. They just won’t dominate an entire fucking year and get covered by every band everywhere. Oh noes.
Prepare to get sick of EVERY SINGLE REVIEW reading basically like this post, ie: “This is all right, I guess, but where’s the Crazy?”
That first album suffers from overplay, they were so right to pull it themselves to keep it from making people sick of it, that having been said, the album seemed geared towards the weird hiphop and irony set anyways, but it had a definate 5-6 songs I can listen to again and again. The rest were just so ZZZZZPOP! WAHHH!! CLICK CLICK! that I usually just skip past them.
I expect much of the same from the new album, though ‘Run’ had a great beat to it. I wonder if the reference is to everyone who liked the first one? RUN FOR YOUR LIVES THIS TIME WE’RE SERIOUS ARTISTS!!!! AGHHH!
@Tenno: I don’t think it’s as weird a record as the first one, in general. At the very least, I haven’t picked up on the fresh scent of necrophilia coming from any of the lyrics.
It’s not anywhere near as hiphop-based either. It’s 60s pop and soul records from the drum sounds and rhythm patterns used all the way up the layers to Cee-lo’s vocals.
If Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones are the two ends of the neo-60s-soul-record spectrum, with Winehouse representing something descended from that sound but still essentially modern and Sharon Jones representing an exact recreation of the old shit… The Odd Couple leans more towards the Winehouse end of things.
That 60s-feel along with the lack of bizarro-hip-hop stuff is part of why I think this one will stick around with me longer.