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Not So Crazy

The dynamic duo of eccentric pop return with polished predictability BY WILL HERMES

Gnarls Barkley

The Odd Couple

ITUNES MYSPACE

In 2006, two avant-

DJ’ing in a mouse

garde hip-hoppers—

a producer known for

costume and a Dirty

South MC who

abandoned a legendary crew to make

psychedelic soul and wear a pink feather

boa—released a little indie project.

Suddenly, shit was crazy. Or, to be

specific, “Crazy”: that year’s Great Pop

Moment, a song that topped charts

worldwide and propelled sales of the

little indie project, St. Elsewhere, past the

two million mark.

So what would you do if you were

Gnarls Barkley? You know damn well

what you’d do: try to duplicate the

recipe. Which is roughly what Cee-Lo

Green and Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton

have done on their sophomore set.

The title is a little misleading,

though. By now, the squat, thuggish

MC who indulges his introspective,

manic-depressive side and the lanky,

mild-mannered studio geek who reveres

Jay-Z have met halfway, and one of the

remarkable things about The Odd Couple

is its seamlessness. “Who’s Gonna Save

My Soul,” slo-mo hip-hop blues that

recalls Portishead (a group both men

have cited as a shared love), has Cee-Lo

testifying like an unsaved Al Green: “I

wonder if I’ll live to grow old, now /

Gettin’ high ’cause I feel so low-down,”

while a martial drumbeat pounds and

an organ moans beneath him. And on

“Run,” a Memphis-flavored workout

with a shout-studded chorus echoing

both the Bar-Kays’ “Soul Finger” and

Radiohead’s “ 15 Step,” Cee-Lo rides

handclaps and horn stabs like a scary

preacherman in a backwoods church:

“Hurry, little children, run this way / I

have got a beast at bay.” In the same

It’s a parti-colored
pop trip unlike anything
else out there.

way, “Surprise” and “She Knows” are

perfect blends of ’60s AM radio pop and

’70s reggae ambience: Call it dubblegum.

Danger Mouse’s arrangements are

so sublimely strange it barely matters

that the songs don’t all stick or that

nothing radiates the instant-megahit

magic of “Crazy.” On the surface,

The Odd Couple is basically a more

refined St. Elsewhere, without the rap

aberrations (“Transformer,” “Feng Shui”)

or goofy covers (“Gone Daddy Gone”)

that made the debut such a wild, bumpy

ride. Thing is, that stylistic recklessness

was part of Elsewhere’s thrill. Cee-Lo is a

charismatic singer, limited voice notwith-

standing. But he’s a world-class rapper,

and it’s frustrating that, like his child-

hood buddy André 3000, he’s perversely

refusing to play MC. There was a sense

on St. Elsewhere that the music could go

absolutely anywhere. Here, you know

where it’s headed.

But that’s ultimately nitpicking. The

Odd Couple is still a parti-colored R&B

pop trip pretty much unlike anything

else out there. If the bar was set too high

the first time, the twosome have got

only themselves to blame.

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES BLAGDEN

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