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.

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.

Scaaaary!

The editors are the ones who don’t have to listen to anything when they slap a rating on it and print the thing.

Preview = reviewing the album after watching the video for Run on YouTube.

Review = reviewing the album after listening to a shitty leak.

Right?

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.

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.

I am weak or something.

*sigh*

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.

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!