Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere

In reference to the previous post, here is a music review. Now in no way was I professionally trained to listen to music or whatever, I just know what I like, and I tend to listen to a very wide variety of music. I pretty much just don't like anything that sucks on any level.

So here we are with the current Indie/Mainstream flavor of the month: Gnarls Barkley, and their album St. Elsewhere. Notice how I said "their", I say that because GNARLS BARKLEY IS NOT ONE PERSON! The bald Black man you see in the group is Thomas "Cee-Lo" Calloway, of Goodie Mob fame, (if you don't know who or what Goodie Mob, click on the link or ask Adam Rowe) and the other person is the group is producer/DJ Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, famous for his "Grey Album". So if I hear another uninformed person tell me about "that Gnarls Barkley guy", well I don't know what I will do, but it won't be good.

As for the album which is titled after some hospital show I never ever saw, is actually very good. I should stop the review there, but it would probably be more fun if I go on.

The album is somewhat experimental in nature, as Danger Mouse has done numerous collaborations with other artists and Cee-Lo has broken off from Goodie Mob to do solo projects in a more soulful vein. That soul is evidenced on the opening track of the album "Go-Go Gadget Gospel", a really uptempo track that gets the album bouncing off. It is followed by its breakout single "Crazy", which while I have pretty much tired of now, is still a very solid song. When listening to this album you cannot be of a closed mind musically, or you will end up not liking it. On a lot of the songs you can tell they are just having fun, some have a much deeper message, however, on each song Cee-Lo's vocal ability and quirkiness shine over very good production from Danger Mouse (this is really the first time I've listened to any original works hes produced), he has laid out an eclectic backdrop for arguable one of the most original albums I've heard in years.

Some of the other highlights on the album are songs like "The Boogie Monster", which I find hilarious and the overly dark "Necromancer". Overall I think it is a very good album, although there is a noticeable slowdown toward the middle of the album and the album in general is very short (under 40 minutes). All in all, I'd recommend this album to anyone with open mind, and anyone who doesn't like entirely shitty music.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.