Review Summary: Surprisingly mediocre despite more cohesive.
Gnarls Barkley have become notorious for their costumes during live shows, photo shoots, and interviews. Among their acts are gladiators, airline crew members, tennis players, and famous characters from classic movies such as The Wizard of Oz and A Clockwork Orange. Often, they open with cover songs and change their name to fit their theme of the day. Clearly, Gnarls Barkley likes themes. They consistently referred to
St. Elsewhere as an actual place, perhaps signifying the collaboration between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo as a place to explore music from “elsewhere” inside of them.
This belief in unifying themes is what makes
The Odd Couple such a surprise. No one should have expected
St. Elsewhere Part II or an album of “Crazy.” Both artists’ diversity in their personal careers obviously demonstrates a constant need to try something new. Still, the sleepy, faux-Motown styles of the album perplex a listener familiar with St. Elsewhere (and honestly, who isn’t familiar?) The only real energetic, uptempo song of the album is lead single “Run,” which many criticized as an attempt to create the next “Crazy.” While the energy and soul of the song is much of the same, the similarities end there. Danger Mouse’s beats sound more like laser beams than real drums, and placed smartly in the middle of the album, it gives a break from the slow, sleepy style of the rest of the album.
If a comparison were to be drawn from
St. Elsewhere to
The Odd Couple, the entire album takes from the production style of “Smiley Faces.” “She Knows” has a constant steamy sizzle underlying the music, giving a unique atmosphere like a smokescreen covering the music. These nuances are where Danger Mouse makes his statements on the album. “Open Book” enters breakcore territory, albeit not impressively, with spastic drums, but otherwise, his beats are fairly standard throughout. The most impressive aspect of Danger Mouse’s production throughout the album is the incredible restraint he puts on the entire album. Even at the album’s strongest moments, the music and Cee-Lo’s vocals sound under control and remarkably unforced. Danger Mouse’s production sets the mood of the album, able to change styles on the fly and affect the album in a dynamic way that no vocalist could possibly do.
On first impressions, however, Cee-Lo is the obvious highlight. The voice that captured the world by storm in 2006 returns with the same strengths, an ability to belt out melodies with soul and power. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”, while sung under control, is arguably Cee-Lo’s most powerful song to date. At the lyrical and vocal climax (“Still my hunger turns to greed,
'cause what about what I need?/And oh, who's gonna save my soul now?”), he creates a sense of power by changing the melody and making subtle inflections in his voice instead of simply getting louder, which would destroy the atmosphere of the song. Although in moments like these, Cee-Lo is one of the best voices in pop music, he lets down the album considerably in songs like “Whatever.” His lyrics read like a depressed freshman in high school (“Shut up Mom, it is not okay”), and his melodies sound just as whiny. The overemphasized “*** you too” is clearly forced. Unfortunately, Danger Mouse cannot save this song with unique production, as he layers the song with boring and basic accompaniment.
On the whole,
The Odd Couple has a much more unified atmosphere, but in quality the album is sporadic and unpredictable. “Run”, “She Knows”, and “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” all remind listeners of what made Gnarls Barkley so successful, but the album is full of filler like “Whatever” and “Would Be Killer” as well. The downtempo style of the album establishes an atmosphere, but for a full listen of the album, it needs more energy like “Run” to help balance the weight. The strengths make the album worth a listen, and successful singles are sure to come from it, but
The Odd Couple hardly stands up to
St. Elsewhere, which had many flaws in itself. For the sake of their legacy, let’s hope that this is not the end for the Gnarls Barkley collaboration.
