Gnarls Barkley’s 2005 smash “St. Elsewhere” was an occasionally brilliant, but mostly frustrating album. True, it boasted top-notch production from the now-ubiquitous Danger Mouse and gorgeous vocals from sometime-rapper Cee-Lo Green, and it had a woozy, Marvin Gaye-via-trip hop vibe that was like little else in popular music; but too often these talents were wasted on songs that didn’t seem to be much more than rough sketches.
Still, there was “Crazy.” And luckily on their sophomore effort, “The Odd Couple,” the duo have fixed nearly all the problems that plagued their debut, unleashing what must surely rank as one of the weirdest – yet at the same time utterly infectious – records to hit the mainstream in quite a while.
Like their debut, “The Odd Couple” is a blast of wacky alternative soul that’s fairly evenly split between melodic, commercial songs and more bizarre, downbeat fare. The difference here is that both styles are pulled off equally successfully, because the duo realises that the first thing that makes a song good is a strong melody, not trippy, fancy production or acrobatic vocal work. Sure, there may be no “Crazy” this time around, but on the whole “The Odd Couple” is a far more satisfying album, consistent without losing any of the offbeat charm that made “St. Elsewhere” such a success.
Highlights abound. On the poppier side, especially, the record comes up trumps, with melodic gems ranging from the Ray-Charles-on-helium vibe of “Blind Mary” to the driving, ecstatic “Surprise,” which is the closest the album comes to topping the chorus of “Crazy.” And those are among the weaker pop-oriented tracks on the album.
Even more impressive is the opening “Charity Case,” whose intricate mesh of vocal hooks and instrumental samples signals a significant step up in the level of song-writing. And while first single “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)” won’t be tearing up the charts any time soon, it’s far from a disappointment, an utterly unhinged gospel-pop song that tears past at such a pace it takes at least five or ten listens to realise just how complex the track is. Check the day-glo, effervescent video too, which would be getting my vote for “best 1970s music video made in 2008” had Snoop Dogg not already snagged it with his brilliant “Sensual Seduction.” Special cred should also go to “Run” for being perhaps the most buoyant, upbeat song ever written about heroin addiction; the line “can’t you feel the pain / when the needle hits the vein” is sung by Cee-Lo in such an ecstatic fashion I didn’t even notice what the lyrics were actually about until the third or fourth listen.
And that is perhaps the greatest strength of “The Odd Couple” – every time you listen to it, you notice something new, whether it’s noticing that a sweet song like “Whatever” is actually about clinical depression or finding new, earworm-catchy hooks in the most unexpected places.
It’s this brilliant balancing act between off-the-wall, wacko ingenuity and pop smarts that guarantees Danger Mouse’s place as one of the most talented producers in contemporary music. Seriously, no one else would think of doing something as downright insane as dropping random, gorilla-like grunts and moans right into an otherwise (fairly) normal pop song like “Open Book.” And as long as he doesn’t pull a Timbaland and start slouching just as he hits his commercial peak (nothing as mediocre as “Shock Value” from you, thank you very much), we can expect a lot more top-notch work soon; he’s manning production duties for everyone from the Black Keys to Beck in the year to come.
But let’s not forget the other indispensable ingredient to Gnarls Barkley’s success, the yin to Danger Mouse’s yang: Cee-Lo. Without his keening, gorgeous voice – gravelly and marshmallow-sweet at once, and undoubtedly one of the most remarkable, instantly identifiable voices in pop – it’s unlikely that anything on this album would be half as good. It’s on the weirder songs on the record that Cee-Lo’s fundamental role in the band comes out especially strongly, because he is able to make even the most oblique and tripped-out of Danger Mouse’s production pieces listenable and oddly infectious. Even a song as creepy and utterly bizarre as “Would Be Killer,” which sounds like Massive Attack and James Brown collaborating for the theme song of a fifties horror movie, becomes compelling in Green’s hands (or should I say, vocal chords…), and it’s hard to imagine it being anything but alienating with any other vocalist behind the mike.
Now, “The Odd Couple” isn’t absolutely perfect. The track-listing, for instance, does tend to place similar songs one after another, and there are a few songs that could be pruned, such as the ever-so-slightly bland pop/rock of “Going On,” which is the closest the album gets to the mainstream.
On the whole though, “The Odd Couple” is a significant step up from the duo’s promising but flawed debut. What it proves above all else is that Gnarls Barkley are anything but an “odd couple” – they are not just a one-hit wonder, not just a goofy, oddball combination of geeky white producer and charismatic black rapper. Gnarls Barkley really have the chance to create something special and lasting. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether they can pull the same trick twice.
"The Odd Couple" released 18 March, 2008 by Atlantic Records.
Images courtesy of Atlantic Records and Empire Online.
Published in the Daily Princetonian.
No comments:
Post a Comment