The issue of
Billboard currently on newsstands features Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton and Cee-Lo, a.k.a. Gnarls Barkley, on the cover—in a surprisingly non-movie-related getup of long johns and colored lights. (Maybe it's an homage to
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?) Inside, correspondent Todd Martens leads off the magazine's holiday album preview with
an interview in which the gnarly duo talks about the follow-up to last year's chart-and-critic-approved
St. Elsewhere. Burton gives the writer a listen to a mysterious, unnamed new song, which Martens describes as "an even deeper slice of soul than anything from
St. Elsewhere [with] the most forceful vocal performance Cee-Lo has ever given." But for all the upbeat chitchat, Burton already sounds—shocker!—like he's cracking a little under the typical second-record pressure.
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Idolator
Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple was supposed to hit stores last week, but then Internet leakers ruined the duo's carefully calibrated promotional strategy and forced Downtown Records to push up the release of the album to mid-March. Perhaps as a way of celebrating that bygone release date, the site FrontToBackToFront.com is now offering a free (well, free once you put in some key demographic data that is very fakeable) download of the entire album in reverse as one 38-minute MP3. I haven't heard anyone say "This album is OK, but it doesn't have a 'yzarC'" yet, but give it time. [ELPUOC DDO EHT; HT CRIMES AGAINST MUSIC]
Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple, which had its physical release date bumped up from April 8 to "sometime this week," has appeared on the iTunes Music Store, and it's already No. 2 on the store's album chart. Holding it back from the top spot—and bringing up its rear on the chart—are two editions of the new album by Danity Kane. People really care about Danity Kane beyond wondering whether that one member was sleeping with Diddy? Huh. I guess nothing really beats being on TV as far as exposure to the actually-buying-records public goes. [
