This album had big, soulful shoes to fill. Let's be honest, everyone went crazy for "Crazy". That song was like the "Who let the Dawgs out!?" of good music. Even The Raconteurs did a cover (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uuuygq76-c), and the gaps bridged therein continue to boggle my most prodigious mind. Now in a Rolling Stone Interview, Cee Lo said that he wasn't gonna rush anything, and that anything he did with DJ Danger Mouse was going to happen as organically as the first album had.
Well, from what little I know about organisms growing inside/around Cee Lo, I knew this was for the best, and now it appears that the Soul Machine knows what he is doing.
While the dominant muse for the first album was certainly Cee Lo's battle with crippling depression, this second album starts off with a big boost of the Ulti-Muse if you will, the grand mammy of them all, Love.
The Odd Couple starts off smooth as silk with
Blind Mary, one of the grooviest and sweetest love songs I've heard in years. We can also hear Danger up to his old tricks again, and a sweet ass pimp hat full of new ones. The production on every track has been meticulously combed by both artists, and the result is a pile of tracks that show both artists at, and I'm not exaggerating here, the top of their game. "Run" carries the energy right out of the CD and into your ears, and is certainly the best driving song on the disc. As the album carries through "She Knows", we find ourselves inside the setting and situations that plagued the 1st album, secrecy, shame, hidden agendas, juxtaposed with a sweeping melodic beat that almost mirrors Cee Lo's tone, giving his voice an unnatural accent. Tricky business, this sound engineering.
It's important to point out that the biggest problem, at least for me, is that as with the first album, many songs leave me feeling like I'd heard a sample instead of a whole track. While most of the tracks manage to scurry into the 3.5 minute line, I just find myself wanting more, but thats probably due to an unhealthy sonic diet of post rock all the live long day. "Whatever" is probably the only throwaway track on the album. As a groovy track, it doesn't groove enough, and lacks enough diversity to justify even calling it a song. "Who's gonna save my soul" feverishly works to right this wrong, with a murky "walking home through a bad part of town at night" beat, while Cee Lo does that thing where he Mopes/worries to the beat, and the result is magic.
"Open Book" is the best beat on the album, a frenetic, energetic drum machine keeps time with a swelling synthesizer can barely contain the almost bestial wrath of Cee Lo, and the tone of urgency conveyed through percussion gives this song a real "Final boss" type feeling.
"Would be Killer" is a slick man, real slick, slicker than the slickest hep cat in grooveburgh, you dig? Imagine someone dealing with the possibility that they're crazy, then cover it in lube, oil, and butter. You can feel the track slither down your ear canal like one of the brain slugs from K.A.Applegate's
The Animorphs. It also reinforces the stark contrast between the lighthearted, happening beats, with the soul crushing source material and the masterful mournful, wailing tones, polished south of the Mason Dixon, that is Cee Lo Green. The Album's strength lies in the simple fact that both artists are either having the same thoughts on different emotional planes, or they feel the exact same way about comepletely different stories, and sew them together with great success. Neither would surprise me at this point. "Goin On" is probably the best example of DJ Danger Mouse's complete & utter control of tempo and atmosphere. It also has the highest number of "Times Played" on my iTunes, but thats hardly germane. His combination of Chorus vocals and live drums is honestly breathtaking, but by the very end, I'll admit it's a little too much.
"Charity Case" just feels like another song that they made on their last album, or even earlier on this one. It's filler for certain, and very forgettable at that. Belss and Clapping do not a catchy beat make. The album closes up on a real hit or miss, surprisingly. Framing the paranoia inherent in celebrity, "My Neighbor" showcases the fear of envy and covetous fellow man, and frankly, I could swear that Moby (Circa bad moby era) stepped in, and it sounds like a rehash of every other beat on the album. "little Better" is basically a simple and shamless rep track disguised as a song, and others little to nothing in the way of substance.
In summation, the album starts off real strong and smooth, but its more than likely to get replaced before the last 3-4 songs are over, or even played at all. I love Gnarls Barkley, and man oh man how I love most of their work. But hey, they can't all be Gems.
8/10
Clintaga
