Music
Gnarls Barkley's Odd Mix
By By Anthony Harding--SeeingBlack.com Contributing Writer
Apr 28, 2008, 23:42

Okay, so the new Gnarls Barkley album, The Odd Couple, didn’t come out until eight days after this review was written. But yours truly managed to get his hands on the album about a month before the March 25th release date, so I got a chance to listen to it and give y’all my opinion. And my opinion is: it’s crazy psychedelic with a rubber band snap and abstract uppers in your ear. In other words, it’s a good album.

The music video for the album’s first single, “Run,” was banned in the United States because the dizzying effects and hypnotic spirals in it supposedly induces epileptic seizures. However, the clinically incorrect visuals of the video effectively captures the artistic angle of the entire project.

The whole album has an intensely wacky vibe; it’s like an audio hallucination. One minute, the tone is really happy in cuts like “Run,” then it plummets into moodiness with “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” then hops right back up again. It makes you feel like you are in some free expression moment of the 1960’s. My favorite tracks were “Would Be Killer” and “Blind Mary,” if you would like any recommendations.

Gnarls Barkley has an established flavor; their unique approach is simultaneously their greatest strength and weakness. While The Odd Couple doesn’t sound very different from their debut effort St. Elsewhere,, this is not necessarily a bad thing. However, I would have liked to hear some growth in their work, and growth was completely absent in this new album. That being said, The Odd Couple is a great album that deserves a good listen.



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