The Odd Couple : Gnarls Barkley : Review : Rolling Stone

When Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo strike a pose together as Gnarls Barkley, they'll dress up as anything from Star Wars characters to the Dude and Walter from The Big Lebowski. But their greatest costume concept has to be Hunter S. Thompson and his attorney, because that captures the fear and loathing in their music. "Crazy" seemed jovial on the surface, which is why it became the world's favorite song in 2006. But the longer you listened, the creepier it felt — especially Cee-Lo's cackle in the second verse.

The Odd Couple is even doomier — it's like the laugh from "Crazy" stretched out into a whole album of paranoid bad weed vibes. Thanks to Danger Mouse, the album has the always unpredictable sonic brilliance of their first collaboration, St. Elsewhere, even when the songwriting misses the mark. They don't try for any crowd-pleasing pop energy — instead, Danger Mouse filters Cee-Lo's gospel-trained voice through alien studio effects over druggy, distorted funk loops for the kind of sound they called "trip-hop" back in the Nineties. "Charity Case" is Gnarls at their finest, with chain-gang grunts and gasps, tinkling chimes, spy-movie guitar and R&B; organ, as Cee-Lo sings, "How are you?/Knock on wood/Well, I'm not doing so good." No kidding.

Former Neutral Milk Hotel protégé Danger Mouse comes up with some amazing tracks here: "Run" sounds like the go-go-bar scene in a vintage biker flick, chopped up into staccato blasts of funk. "Surprise" is Sixties L.A. sunshine pop gone sour, and the Tricky-style ballad "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" lets Cee-Lo wail about drugs and death. The Odd Couple has painfully dull moments ("Blind Mary," "Open Book"), and Cee-Lo whines "Whatever" in what sounds like a lame parody of all the mediocre indie bands who spent 2006 doing clueless "Crazy" covers. But that's the premise of The Odd Couple: This time, Gnarls don't want anybody to miss how bummed out they are.

ROB SHEFFIELD

(Posted: Apr 17, 2008)

News and Reviews

Click "Copy Me" to add the RS.com Widget to your Facebook page, blog, MySpace page and more.

How to Play This Album

Click the play button.
Register or enter your username and password.
Let the music play!

No commitment.
It's FREE.

Track List

Play All

Your Turn

Give us your review of The Odd Couple

Review 1 of 5

3of 5 Stars

i'm givin it 4 based on general principle, these guys are so smart,... the next incredible epics in music won't come from nickelback or madonna---it will be from bands like this.(who hopefully don't get so concerned w/style they forget the music)----this is a band clearly capable of pushing the creative envelope if they really wanted to.. one gets the feeling or at least hopes that the band is holding back on this album--can you imagine locking them in a room w/my morning jacket or jack white or the early 80's talking heads---they need to bang out another album w/in the year w/the "soul" purpose of making a statement. hopefully a statement which,on purpose doesn't sound like a gnarls barkley record---this is a good album but in moments of brilliance like "save my soul" and "neighbor" or the album closer --"feel better" one gets the hints of the shimmering rock+soul masterpiece bubbling just below the surface

Apr 16, 2008 19:39:45

Review 2 of 5

4of 5 Stars

Definitely beyond the traditional and regurgitated pop formula. I particularly enjoyed the odd mix of genre styles. 60s style back up vocal harmonies, blues jazz solos, gospel, church organ, mock punk are just a few of the influences I noticed. There is a lot of mindful consideration in these pairings that suggests this isn't just some heartless mix and match.

Apr 16, 2008 15:41:40

Review 3 of 5

4of 5 Stars

This album is amaizing. absolutley one of the best current albums out there at the moment. And will be for a while. This music is timeless and true. "No Time Soon" is a strange and trippy dark song at first listen but quickly becomes a favorite, as do "Neighbors" and "Who's gonna save my soul now" "Charity Case" and "Surprize" are the best upbeat songs in the album that have a sixties edge to them. Overall the album is crazy good and has been on repeat in my pod. Go buy it.

Apr 14, 2008 11:02:09

Review 4 of 5

5of 5 Stars

Many may say it is an odd yet eclectic album, but i think that this one will be playing on my MP3 player for YEARS. "Who's Gonna Save My Soul", "Open Book", and "Neighbors" show the lighter and darker side of my favorite band of the 21st century. If you can't listen to this album and have the uncontrollable urge to clap your hands, and sing along with it, something is wrong with you. My 55 year old mother heard this album and said they must have sampled from soul & r&b bands in the 50's and 60's. Especially like in the beginning of "Surprise". I think this album has been extremely underrated. Definitely
Ian Harris

Apr 14, 2008 07:40:56

Review 5 of 5

4of 5 Stars

had some really cool tracks like "Going On", "She Knows", and "Charity Case" but had a few crappy tracks too.

Apr 5, 2008 20:35:16

Previous Next