Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (Atlantic)
4/5
By: Michael Cragg
It's probably best to deal with the elephant in the room before we go on. Yes, Gnarls Barkley made one of the best singles in recent years in the shape of their addictive rumination on mental health, 2006's 'Crazy'. And no, there isn't anything on their follow-up to St Elsewhere (the album that housed and was overshadowed by said single) that is as catchy or damn near perfect as those three minutes. But then, not many pop singles are.
If St Elsewhere hinted at a troubled mind, then The Odd Couple comes out with all guns blazing. Only this time, the guns are pointed at their own heads - such is the morbidly depressing nature of nearly all of the thirteen tracks on show.
Gnarls Barkley as you may or may not know is the fictitious creation of singer Cee-lo Green and producer and all round musical chameleon, Danger Mouse. Known for their fancy dress costumes as well as their psychedelic soul music, they seem to be content to sit on the periphery of the pop world. Like a musical version of the child catcher from Chitty Bang Bang, they coax people in with the promise of sweet sounding melodies and joyful handclaps whilst underneath it's all depression, death and disappointment. Like all great pop it takes a while before you realise you've been duped into dancing along to other people's misery and yet it's all the more satisfying once you find out.
The Odd Couple isn't a million musical miles away from their debut; there are still blasts of organ here, tight drum sounds there and obviously, at the centre of it all, Green's masterful voice, an instrument so versatile that he can wring out a cornucopia of emotions in one single note. He's also able to take on different personas at the drop of a hat, be it the moping teenager on 'Whatever', the psychopath on 'Would Be Killer' or the heart-broken fan on the astounding 'Who's Gonna Save My Soul'. It's testament to his skill that a song about being disappointed in one of your idols carries the same weight as any heartbreak anthem you can think of. It's also greatly helped by Danger Mouse's simplistic backing, just a spidery guitar line and a repetitive drum pattern that sounds a million miles away from the speakers.
Elsewhere though, Danger Mouse dips into his immense box of musical tricks with some startling results. 'Open Book' opens with quiet jungle sounds before exploding into a glitchy, squirmish break beat with some backwards strings thrown in for good measure. Both 'Surprise' and 'Going On' are radio hits in waiting and yet they both feature odd flourishes, be it the sudden, mournful coda that takes the latter into a whole new direction, or the Latin-influenced instrumentation of the former. Even new single 'Run' sounds like a minor emotional breakdown, with Green pleading, "Run for your life" over a '60's soul backing. Lyrically, Green seems obsessed with death, redemption and on the Beatles-esque 'Blind Mary', the benefits of marrying a blind lady. The only real sense of hope comes at the end with 'A Little Better', but even that is a minor-key ode to the death of Green's parents.
The Odd Couple is an album that can be hard to love - it never stays still long enough to be held tightly - and not everything works (it's perhaps two or three songs too long), but as an experiment on what pop music can do it's a wonderfully cinematic, if downbeat, trip.
Artists in this article: Gnarls Barkley
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