What Would Khujo Say? (The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley)

Member Name: XICripZ

Product:	The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley
Date:	29/07/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original

Disadvantages: Too much experimentation

Gnarles Barkley released "The Odd Couple" in 2008 as their follow-up to "St. Elsewhere" a release which saw former Goodie Mob MC and singer Cee-Lo and the producer Danger Mouse, who over the years has worked in various genre of music and is seen once again not to settle anywhere specifically for another alternative record.

1. "Charity Case"

Getting the album underway, you see that you have them diving right into a track which has them showing off their alternative ways with a song which sees them really experimenting with what they have to offer as Cee-Lo sings in a Soul style with some soft Breakbreaks with a bit of a Electro tinge. I couldn't quite get my head around it, so I couldn't really enjoy it at all.

**One Star**

2. "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"

You see that with this oen you get a song which appears to take on a form which appears to take on a much more manageable style as it sees that Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse come together in a song which has them dealing with a Soul and Bluesy kind of thing to relate it to a very specific time, but I would say that just because it has its place, doesn't mean that it will come across that successful now, and personally I couldn't get down with its plainness.

**One Star**

3. "Going On"

This was the second single to the album and it gets them performing a track which lifts the mood significantly which has them getting into some thing which has them putting together the Blues and Hip Hop work for a pretty complex recording. It takes awhile to get into and I felt that it only felt like a lift due to the tempo and what it is juxtaposed with.

**Two Stars**

4. "Run"
This one dropped as the lead single to the album and it is one which appears to take the material from the tune prior t it and simply extends it to something a lot more appealing as they get down to one which has them ripping through a jam which sounds to be a modern day interpretation of up-tempo tracks from the late sixties period Motown recordings.

**Four Stars**

5. "Would Be Killer"

This short one has them getting down with more of the experimental work as you see that you have danger Mouse providing more of the Blues-styled beats, and with this you get that Cee-Lo is able to sing in an appropriate manner to help it along the way. It is a hypnotic work and has them showing their darker work.

**Two Stars**

6. "Open Book"

The freaky arrangement of the percussion is something which strikes you immediately in this one as it sees that they are trying out more risky work, and I have to say that I'm really not a fan of off-beat recordings, and I couldn't really appreciate what they did at all here as it didn't make much sense to me, and with each element, you see a contrast with something else in the music.

**One Star**

7. "Whatever"

You here that here they get into another one which appears to take on heavy influence from what you got in the kind of thing heard back in the sixties for Motown in terms of how the song is constructed and the way in which the production is done, but again you have more of the newer work in the form of Electronic House techniques, but this is something which I couldn't really enjoy about it.

**Two Stars**

8. "Surprise"

Once again I was lost in what the two of them came up with for this one as they do what sounds o be an up-lifting song, (in terms of the way in which it has been composed and the way in which the vocalists does his thing) but I wasn't really getting this from the music and so it just lef it as one full of even more confusion.

**One Star**

9. "No Time Soon"

Danger Mouse lays down more of his experimental work where he plays around with typical conventions in music and bases much of his work upon strange sound effects and such, which to me was acting as an improvement to other things, but it didn't really translate that well into a song as what Cee-Lo sings just doesn't fit in with the sound of the rest, of the recording and the contrast does nothing to help it whatsoever.

**One Star**

10. "She Knows"

Here you have them adding to the variety of the album with this one as it finds that they do one with them trying to show where they can take things with the much lighter work, but I felt that the prominence of Blues within this album just played it out by this point and so more of it was never going to go down well.

**One Stars**

11. "Blind Mary"

In a massive turnaround, you see that for this one the music is given massive boos as everything which was heard in earlier parts of the album is a completely lifted in order to have them start fresh and come with a love song which makes much more sense as it is a floaty song, and has them taking you into a wonderland. Again I wasn't feeling it, but its stands out form the rest.

**One Star**

12. "Neighbors"

You see that they get back into the main style of the rest of the album here, but in a big shift you see that you have some proper Hip Hop percussion being given to it in order to bring out the more conventional side to the music, but it appears that with all of the winding synth and disported vocals, that this is lost to the general sounds of the album.

**Two Stars**

13. "A Little Better"

Bringing this album to a close, you get tat from the opening of the song that we are in for one which takes on a much more typical format and something with can be understood much more than a lot of what has come in the record up to this point. I wasn't rally into it, but I expect that I liked it because of what had come prior to it.

**Two Stars**

Personally, I thought that this was a pretty weak follow-up record from the duo as for the majority of it, I couldn't quite work out what they were trying to do and the relentlessness of the Soul which is found within it brings you down to the point where the up-beat songs do nothing to effect you in any way whatsoever. The lack of the Swing, Bebop and Neo-Soul (all in their debut) meant that the album just stayed on pretty much the same level throughout and held it back somewhat.

Summary: Gnarles Barkley's second album