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Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
| Calendarlive | Singer Cee-Lo Green and musician-producer Danger Mouse do make an odd couple as modern soul duo Gnarls Barkley: one short, one tall; one round, one rangy; one closely shorn, one bushy-haired. But the title of this follow-up to "St. Elsewhere," their hit 2006 debut, may also refer to how life is usually at once absurd and horrible, light and dark, sacred and profane.
With their signature blend of exuberance and spaciness, these 13 tracks ruminate on such weighty but elementally human states as feeling outcast, finding a place to belong, wanting what others have and hoping for something better....full text |
| | Rapreviews | | Gnarls Barkley are a musical tandem uniquely suited for each other - both men are as enigmatic as they are fascinating. Whether singing or rapping, Thomas DeCarlo Callaway b/k/a Cee-Lo lays his entire life on the line lyrically. Few artists have ever been such an open book when it comes to discussing religion, sexuality, politics and everything from self-loathing to exuberant joy. Brian Joseph Burton b/k/a Danger Mouse puts the E in eclectic like few producers have before him or since. A broad range of artists have called on Mr. Mouse for his beats, ranging from cult hip-hop favorites MF DOOM and Jemini the Gifted One to chart-topping sensations Gorillaz and The Rapture. His sound is a square peg that doesn't fit neatly into the round holes of any one genre. It would be far too easy to say his rap sounds like eletronica, his pop sounds like rock or his rock sounds like rap. For Burton such distinctions are entirely malleable - he can freeform shape music into anything that strikes his fancy. Pairing the two together on "St. Elsewhere" resulted in an unexpected and exciting musical menagerie that seemed destined to spark strong debate. This writer picked it as one of 2006's ten best while staff writer DJ Complejo only gave it 6.5 out of 10 overall....full text |
| | Popmatters | | This is not a line off The Odd Couple, but my own (rather ersatz) approach to employ “Gnarls Barkley speak” towards discussing the latest offering from Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. Since the logic of Gnarls Barkley’s lyrics is often framed in contradictory terms, why not begin discussing The Odd Couple with the last song. “What would be on your mind if you knew you was dyin’?”, Cee-Lo posits on “A Little Better”. The listener is left to answer: Regret? Pain? Relief? Joy? Funny how by simply removing the punctuation, those words cease to be four questions but one answer. Gnarls Barkley toils ever so soulfully in this complex confluence of emotions on The Odd Couple, their extraordinarily brazen follow up to 2006’s St. Elsewhere....full text |
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