The secret behind a great piece of musical work is the magical touch of the producer, or Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley. Along with creating Barkley’s genius new album “The Odd Couple,” Danger spreads the love, producing The Black Keys’ new album, “Attack & Release,” out for sale a week before Gnarls Barkley’s drop date. If you listen to Barkley’s album and then the Keys’, the smoky haze of Danger Mouse’s sound leaks through in the subtlest form. It leaves listeners in an eerie but pleasant state that’s all too easy to fall victim to, and lucky for us, hard to shake off.
When the supernatural hit “Crazy” came out two years ago, the music industry literally went crazy over this new duo called Gnarls Barkley. The two-man crew made up of producer phenomenon Danger Mouse and Atlanta’s Cee-Lo created its own genre of indie-rap and psychedelic, catapulting them into a league of their own. When the band came out with its first LP, “St. Elsewhere,” the immediate response was landing No. 1 on the charts.
The recent release of “The Odd Couple” makes the idea of “Crazy” as a one-hit wonder seem insane. Concealed in the new album are some of the coolest sounds that showcase what Danger can do in the studio.
“The Odd Couple” starts off with “Charity Case,” beginning with the sound of a light projector, followed by an addicting rhythmic beat of bass and drums. You can’t stop tapping your foot when you hear it. Being the obvious standout track on the album, Danger Mouse does genius mixing with the vocal strength of Cee-Lo and looping effects reminiscent of “Kill Bill” into the song with chimes and guitar distortion delicately placed throughout the song.
Many of the songs resemble that of a ’60s TV show theme song, the film “The Departed” or a movie directed by Quentin Tarantino. Take a listen to “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” and “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster),” and see the Motown, be-bopping and the Doors-like vibe Danger Mouse tries to maintain. His experience in past projects shows through with the impressive mixing of unlikely sounds paired with Cee-Lo’s rich gospel voice to smooth out the whole process.
There are some snags, though. Cee-Lo’s moaning and groaning on the self-loathing “Whatever” slows down the already sluggishness of the beat in the song. “Blind Mary” is about how Cee-Lo wants a blind girl to marry him because she can’t see what he looks like on the outside; I could go on, but everyone knows the end to this overplayed “poor me” story.
All in all the new Gnarls Barkley album is one to definitely make everyone’s summer playlists. With groovy beats provided by Danger Mouse surrounding Cee-Lo’s suave vocals, “The Odd Couple” makes for a record so addictive it will be hard to stop your iPod. Gnarls joined other bands such as Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and the Raconteurs by releasing its album not according to what the duo initially told the press.
“The Odd Couple” dropped on March 25 instead of the alleged date of April 8 in an effort to stomp out any tainted sales distributions or online leaks of the new project. Although some of the songs appeared on the Internet, Gnarls Barkley figuratively and literally cut out the middle-man only to get its music directly to the listeners, no frills necessary. Survey says: Gnarls Barkley = 1, Music Mafia = 0
