Product Description

'The Odd Couple' is the second album by Gnarls Barkley. Since the release of 2006's debut 'St. Elsewhere', this musicalcollaboration by producer Dangermouse and vocalist Cee-Lo Green has yielded unprecedented commercial and critical success. Here the duo put their own unique spin on soul, funk andRnB presenting an eccentric, cheerful and colourful album. The singles 'Run' and 'Who's Gonna Save My Soul' are included.

Track Listing

1. Charity Case
2. Who\x{2019}s Gonna Save My Soul
3. Going On
4. Run
5. Would Be Killer
6. Open Book
7. Whatever
8. Surprise
9. No Time Soon
10. She Knows
11. Blind Mary
12. Neighbors
13. A Little Better

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #711 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-31
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 "Surpirse". "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

Customer Reviews

Proof they are anything buy one-hit wonders!
What an exceptional sophmore album! I had heard 'Run' on the radio many times, found it to be a really likeable piece of music, so i decided to give the album a chance. I was blown away! It exceeds any of my expectations, and has to be one of my albums of the year. It doesn't have the problem of St. Elsewhere in which one song overshadowed the rest, in fact in contrast I can honestly say that any song on the album could be released as singles, they are all THAT good!

The album starts with the infectious beat of 'charity case', which is a simple song, instantly loveable with its twinkly rhythm.
Next is 'Who's gonna save my soul', my personal favourite on the album. The production is stripped down to just a few guitar strings being plucked to allow Cee-Lo's fabulous voice to shine through and take centre stage.
With 'Going on' there is a retro 80's rock feel (due to the distorted sounding guitar) which works brilliantly.
The other main higlights include 'Run', the lead single and deservedly so, and 'Open book', which finds Cee-Lo showing a completely different, rawer side to his voice.

As for the rest, you can find out why i've been raving about them when you buy the CD. ;)

The Odd Thing about the Odd Couple
I couldn't wait to listen to this new album - but after the first play I really didn't like it at all and was pining for the excellent St Elsewhere album. In fact I couldn't find a single track which I liked - although of course the incredible layers of production and imagination are still very much present in this new album.
So I left it for a day or so and then realised that it had started to work its way into my subconcious. It's safe to say I'm pretty obsessed with "Going On" and "Run" and can't stop playing them. That's the odd thing sbout the Odd Couple - the more you play it the more you get to know it and to like it.
I'm still getting to know this album a week after buying it.
For me - it's a much more "grown up" album - loads of moody dark Cee Lo lyrics and my God, can that guy sing! A small disappointment for me was the lack of Cee Lo machine gun rapping (in the Transformer mode) and there aren't any quirks like Feng Shui but the sheer inventive Dangermouse sounds and arrangements more than make up for this.

Deep and dark
The new album from Gnarls Barkley picks up very much in the same vein as St Elsewhere, with an eclectic blend of deep grooves and highly experimental production styles and beats from Dangermouse, and Ceelo's sombre lyrics fused with his unique, bombastic and heartbreakingly soulful delivery. The album has so much heart and reverence for 60's soul, pop and psychadelia, as well as embracing cutting edge experimentation that it's hard not to find something to love about it. Admittedly some of the tracks are more difficult than others, but this is an album that stands up to and grows with repeated listening. Personally, I'm a massive fan of Gnarls Barkley and feel this is a better all round album than their exceptional debut, so if that did it for you, there's really no excuse!