Gnarls Barkley

Who says no one's got soul anymore? Gnarls Barkley have got enough soul to spare. In fact, their latest album, The Odd Couple, re-defines soul for a generation weaned on MySpace and Red Bull. Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse certainly draw heavy helpings of '70s funk and classic R&B, but they add in a dash of modern despair, yielding an album that's utterly timeless. In many ways, The Odd Couple functions as an evocative, rainy day record, traversing an entire spectrum of sorrow. Gnarls definitely tackled much darker subject matter this time around, moreso than on their phenomenal 2006 offering St. Elsewhere. Nevertheless, the music itself remains extremely catchy. First single "Run (Natural Disaster)" bumps and grooves as Cee-Lo croons, "Can you feel the pain?" over a background gang chorus. In fact, these cuts go deep, with Danger Mouse adding texture after texture of soul-fusion funk on "Would Be Killer," which begins with the cock of a glock 9mm.

Cee-Lo's unmistakable voice takes center stage on the slower tracks like "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" and "Open Book." Yet, when things speed up again towards the album's latter tracks like "A Little Better" and "Blind Mary," the mood gets a little sunnier, but not much. One of the album's standouts, "Charity Case," sets the bar for modern R&B and soul. It's simple, but at the same time electronically deep. Pure pop gold in many ways, the album examines our obsession with sadness and plays on it. In fact, Gnarls Barkley may very well be the most fun poets of plight ever. Can you feel the pain?

—Rick Florino
03.19.08

In a world where it's the norm to have a one-off collaboration between a producer and a rapper, something special has to happen to prompt a sequel. Of course, "Crazy" was all the prompting needed for Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse to rejuvenate Gnarls Barkley, their collaboration by mail that sparked the brightest and catchiest single since OutKast's "Hey Ya." But fans and critics have to understand that these two were exactly the types to walk away from a follow-up simply for the purpose of a cash-in, which makes that follow-up, The Odd Couple, such a strange proposition -- it's exactly like St. Elsewhere, and fails to reveal a single new thing. All the hallmarks of a follow-up record are here -- similar sounds and themes, for sure, but also a clear lack of innovation, lyrical and production touches that have since become clichés, and more than just a few passages that will prompt a severe case of listener déjà vu. (Of course, many listeners may enjoy that sense of déjà vu.) As before, Danger Mouse's productions are miniature, modernist spaghetti Westerns, very closely detailed whether their major voice is an acoustic guitar or a choir of unholy voices. These are then chained to amped-up beats and beefed-up basslines to create something that sounds both vintage and up to date, all at the same time. Cee-Lo's lyrics and vocals again reveal a lunatic (or seer) who's occasionally more lucid than the sane, an enlightened psychopath wrestling with his demons and revealing the thin line between being crazy and sensible. At times, The Odd Couple is a more beautiful record than its predecessor -- the duo has never put out anything more moving on a musical and emotional level than "Who's Going to Save My Soul," and Danger Mouse's production work outshines St. Elsewhere on one track ("Open Book"). But all too often Cee-Lo relies on the same sort of lyrical cipher as on St. Elsewhere, although none of them are as effective. "I don't understand how I'm so understanding"; "I'm goin' on, and I think they'll have a place for you too"; "I could be a would-be killer" -- these are the ramblings of a madman; they may sound deep and profound late at night, but they're revealed as nonsense with the light of day. ~ John Bush, Rovi