Amazon.com: Following the worldwide, unparalleled critical acclaim for 2006's St. Elsewhere and their record breaking hit "Crazy," Gnarls Barkley is set to release their sophomore album this April. Titled, The Odd Couple, the album features 13 tracks of new material from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green. The first single, "Run" has been met with rave reviews, and The Odd Couple is without question one of the most anticipated releases of 2008.
Amazon.co.uk: With its cinematic origins The Odd Couple is the natural title for the second album by a pair who seem to spend as much time in wardrobe as the studio and whose recordings are often compared to film scores. Their greatest hit, 2006's "Crazy" was even built around a chunk of a spaghetti western soundtrack. Yet after the success of 2006's excellent St Elsewhere, the collaboration of singer Thomas "Cee-Lo Green" Callaway and producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton has become a permanent institution. The Odd Couple certainly lives up to expectations, and though there is no obvious smash to match "Crazy", it's a smoother affair than their often hyperactive debut, the unsettling "Open Book" aside. Highlights include the excellent, agitated lead-off single "Run", a smart slice of off kilter pop-soul, and its most obvious successor, the instant classic "Surprise". "Going On" manages to weld an eighties pomp-pop introduction to a surprisingly vulnerable Cee-Lo performance while the plaintive, bluesy "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" catches him at his most soulful. "Whatever" is a cute, rather bratty sixties pastiche halfway to Britpop (though no Englishman ever used the expression "y'all") while the warped bubblegum pop of "Blind Mary" and the more traditionally ominous "Would Be Killer" are opposite sides of the same twisted coin. Informed by rap and dance, but occupying their own unique genre, Gnarls Barkley continue to soundtrack the movie that, so far, exists only in their heads. --Steve Jelbert
"Is it possible you were hurting worse than me?" Gnarls Barkley's second album is a good step forward for the duo. It's not what I'd call better than their debut, but it's hard to say it's worse, and it's definitely more focused. It's not quite as fun, but it's still plenty entertaining. There aren't any crazy songs like "Transformer", but they still have some fun in between some more depressing and downbeat songs. Despite the shift in tone, it's identifiably the same band, with Danger Mouse coming up with some great beats and Cee-Lo providing nice R&B vocals. Nothing is as immediately grabbing and infectious as "Crazy", but few songs ever written are.
The album's without a single standout song, but almost all of them are good enough to keep the album enjoyable all the way through. Some enjoyable moments are the female vocals in "Charity Case", the chorus in "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)", and the hand claps and backing choir in "Surprise". "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" has a great music video, and is a very good song, with a morose but memorable beat and nice chorus. "Open Book" sounds almost tribal, but has a syncopated rhythm keeping it modern and some powerful singing. "Blind Mary" is the record's lightest-hearted song, and a pretty catchy one. "Neighbors" also has nice vocal work. It's a pretty consistent album, it just doesn't quite reach their previous effort's heights. They've stated they're only going to create one more album, so I hope it continues to evolve their sound as much as this did.
Greeaaaaaattttttttttt! I love this CD! Its kinda a psychadellic, rock mix. Each song is just long enough not to bore you.
good not great The CD works excellent but...the case was cracked when I got it and I don't think it was because of the sipping. So....good but not a great experience.
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple 7/10 The Odd Couple is an appropriate name for Gnarls Barkley's latest album; the collaboration between mash-up extraordinaire Danger Mouse and eccentric rapper Cee-Lo Green is anything but normal. The Odd Couple continues St. Elsewhere's Grammy-winning formula of horror-cinema beats and off-the-wall rhymes, but not much else.
Gnarls Barkley has never been a duo that shied away from taking chances, and The Odd Couple is no exception. Cee-Lo sounds like a fiery gospel singer on "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)" and the beats sound like nothing else on rap radio, such as the slow jam, 9-mm-reloading sounds of "Would Be Killer."
Nevertheless, despite the two's ambitious innovations, one could listen to St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple and consider the two records interchangeable. If you hated "Crazy," chances are you'll hate this album, too, but don't think that will stop Gnarls from continuing to freak out mainstream hip-hop.
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple The Odd Couple (2008, Warner Bros.) Gnarls Barkley's second studio album. ***1/2
In 2006, Gnarls Barkley released St. Elsewhere, an album so fresh and so needed that everyone held their breath for a follow-up album, hoping that the collaboration between singer Cee-Lo and producer "Danger Mouse" Burton was not a one-off affair. Thankfully, 2008 delivered the goods. The Odd Couple is not as pleasing as St. Elsewhere, with one too many songs that don't quite live up to what is expected of these two. However, it is not without its share of masterpieces.
"Run," the obvious first single, is without a doubt the best song on either of their albums, with its vintage sounds of the 50's and 60's rock and soul. Cee-Lo belts like he never has before, again proving he is probably the most soulful singer of the twenty-first century. His voice, as powerful as Little Richard's and just as similar to the 80's singer Sylvester (Not the cartoon cat, the "Do You Wanna Funk?" guy) is integral to the feel of every song. In fact, that whole feel carries on throughout the album, showing up again in stars on the also-amazing track "Surprise," complete with "baapbaa" chorus from God knows where. And it's this difference, the production that makes it feel like Little Richard music in the digital age, that is the profound mark of change between St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. Beyond that, there isn't much that has changed. This, however, is not a problem in the slightest, as the sound is still so fresh that as long as the music is good, the style can go on forever. (Run, Surprise)
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