fleonardo

Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple (Downtown, 2008)
There had to be another one of these Gnarls Barkley albums, right? I don't know how many copies the first one sold, but that song "Crazy" was utterly ubiquitous a couple of years ago. I can only imagine what they stand to make in commercial tie-ins, even once they fail to actually craft a satisfying follow-up to their one big hit.



A much more fuller sound than I recall anything on the first album having, even though I probably only heard it once or twice. I'm also digging the oddly distorted female backing vocals.

WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL

I would've advised against going all dark like this in the first place, since that's not why anyone listens to this shit. But it's the Erykah Badu-esque songwriting, if I can even call it that, that really sinks this.

GOING ON

I'd say this strikes more of a balance between a darker feel and that patented Gnarls Barkley sound. I especially dig the vintage organs and the psychedelic rock guitar. I'm not as crazy about the part where it breaks down towards the end, but what are you gonna do?

RUN

The failed attempt at creating another "Crazy." I suppose it's likable enough though. That scream in the background scared the shit out of me last night, when I was having some "issues."

WOULD-BE KILLER

Followed by this one where Cee-Lo sings in first person as a serial killer, or something along those lines. The groove on this one is a bit basic, but it draws you in. It's probably especially appealing if you're fucked the fuck up.

OPEN BOOK

Gnarls Barkely at their most "artistic," and perhaps their darkest. Skip!

WHATEVER

Cee-Lo's childish, dismissive attitude on this is rather amusing. If only it wasn't so short.

SURPRISE

Kind of a surfer vibe, but with all of the higher frequencies filtered out, as if it one of those early '90s rap records. But with Cee-Lo warbling about god knows what, instead of good rappin'. How unfortunate.

NO TIME SOON

The techno-like rhythms take away from what might actually be a rather affecting meditation about dying.

SHE KNOWS

This one seems kinda pointlessly muddled. Like it might have actually been pretty catchy, if more of an effort was put into the production. Oh that's right, they're not going for catchy on this album!

BLIND MARY

Is this the umpteenth love letter by a rapper to weed? Or is this a song about an actual blind girl, like that Jens Lekman song where he sings from the perspective of Rocky Dennis? How come this could end up a huge hit, but that almost certainly won't?

NEIGHBORS

Similarly, I wonder if this isn't actually a song about how Cee-Lo used some of that "Crazy" money to cop himself a crib in a white neighborhood and now he's having some issues with his neighbors.

A LITTLE BETTER

Cee-Lo rapped a little bit on the last album. How come he couldn't rap on this?

COMMENTS: Let me guess, they figured quite a few people were gonna run out and cop this anyway, on account of the fact that it's Gnarls Barkley. So they figured that, rather than put forth the effort it would take to top the first album (so to speak), they'd overload it with really dark shit so that people who don't know any better will think it's "artistic." And once it underperforms in the marketplace, they can claim it was because it was misunderstood.

BEST TRACKS: "Charity Case" "Going On" "Run"